Another Sky
by Rekad
Summary: A leafeon lives in a pack surrounded by friends and free from problems, until a sudden accident disturbs his current life and the dream he lived. Trying to return to his former life, he is going to lose what he once was, but fulfil dreams and discover the world. Learn the past, future, and himself. That's the tale of the leafeon with white leaves, the tale of Zar the White, my tale
1. Ch1 'Zar'

Chapter 1 'Zar'

How can I explain this? In a world where sudden tragedies are a part of everyday life? Should I speak with phrases of deeper meaning, of unexpected twist in the story, and of characters acting like heroes? But those types of characters are often mindless marionettes, simply pushed around; unconvincing and lifeless. I was never good at it, not that I really tried, but I guess that I am bored of it, of making things more important than they really are. I always focus too much on sharing important thoughts and lessons, trying to show more than I really understand, and hope that someone would find it made more sense than I did...

No, that's not the way it should be told, it should be more of "my tale", should be told as my story, but at the same time I don't want to reveal so much of my life. Perhaps it's possible though. Shown in the most attractive light I can give it but not flashy, a way which creates confusion but gives one answers; to let you truly feel it. To tell it as I would tell myself, or at least, I'll try.

But I'll start from the beginning...

* * *

In the wake of a brand new day, the sun rose, shining brightly and partially illuminating the skies with its magnificent rays. It bathed the ground with warmth, even as it still climbed into the sky, just under the horizon. The swirl of the clouds drifted lazily in the air above, completing their sluggish movements that represented a drifter in the sea's waves.

I was in the middle of a large clearing in the centre of a valley. It was one of the few quiet and peaceful places near home, which was filled with several eeveelution packs. The clearing was covered in tall grass, flowers, and other weeds; most of the plants weren't any taller than my wither.

I was lying flat on my belly in the grass sunbathing, soaking in the rays of the intense morning sun; bushes of every shape and size around me, some bearing plentiful fruits and berries, others with dark pointed leaves or wide ferns spread out. I always came here as soon as the sun began rising to start my work, which was lying here under the sun to bask in it, to be more specific.

Noon arrived sooner than I thought, quickly becoming the hottest part of the day. I felt as if the sun had pinned me to the ground; the leaves on my body were overwhelmed by the intense light. Like every other leafeon I, too, had a leaf-like tail, ears, a larger leaf curled from the top of my forehead and smaller ones hidden in between my fur. Each one was a bright green colour-however, there was a slight difference in that there was a bit of white colour at the bottom, having spread about to cover as much space as I was able to absorb in the sunlight.

The ground was moist; it likely rained last night. I was fine with that; I could easily absorb water from the soil through my paws. This, in turn, would give nutrients to my leaves. I enjoyed spending days like this when most of the days during this season were sunny.

Eventually, the sun was approaching its later stages of its journey to ascend the skies. It wasn't as hot as before anymore, which wasn't enough to adequately provide me the necessary warmth to counter the natural chill I felt from the ground. My job was to lie here, so I would, and I couldn't give up just because of the cold. Photosynthesis was a trying process, especially for specific types like myself; absorbing and gathering energy from the sun, water, minerals and carbon dioxide to make sugars, which was energizing for me. I would release some of this energy, emitting any excess quantities to my surroundings to help stimulate growth and production of nearby plants. Oxygen is also a byproduct of this process, which is also helpful for other living creatures.

Just as the orange oval of the sun was completely covered by the horizon and the night has started, I stood up. I stretched my legs, my back, moved my head left and right, then I made few circles in the air with my leaf on my forehead and tail as I stayed in one position really long, when I was done, I started a walk to my den nearby to sleep. Even if my activity wasn't very showy, I felt tired, there were differences between sunbathing for chilling out and sunbathing for work. If I was about to relax in the sun I would just lie somewhere and allowed my body absorb sun's energy on its own. When I was working, I was forcing myself to make this process much faster and now I felt its effect. My leaves were hurting, I thought that today I even exaggerated them since they seemed to be a little burned and dry, easy to crack and break. When I was about to exit the clearing I meet three umbreons entering the field who, seeing me, greeted me with nods and I answered in the same way. If there would be more leafeon in the pack I probably would also have some smaller group with whom I may share my job, but there was just me.

Just one more day and I would get some free time to do other things than work, like repair some of my social life, no one could stand the sun on the clearing too long. Well, maybe some flareon would be able, but I didn't know any with whom I would like to spend some my time. I was getting up before any other in my pack and was back after everyone returned to the dens at the end of the day.

Soon I saw the large field filled with short grass and many dug holes in the ground. Here was the centre of the pack, usually full of life, crowds of talking eeveelutions doing their tasks to keep the pack going. Each hole was an entrance to the underground home of each family of eeveelutions, young eevees were living with their parents until they evolved. Evolution was a sign that you are ready to live your own, it didn't work with everyone since there were eevees older than me just as eeveelutions much younger than me, but that was the long tradition of the pack. Nearly a year after my early evolution, I stayed secluded, my den on the edge of the field. Empty, as I hadn't found a mate just yet, and I probably won't find one anytime soon.

I hoped this night would be silent and peaceful, the last one was anything but: one of my neighbours, a young pair of glaceon and sylveon decided that they need to make their den bigger as they were expecting pups from their eggs soon. The head of the family started digging, but by mistake, he entered a den of second, old and grumpy neighbour. There was no end of loud debating whose fault it was even if it was obvious from the start. It ended only thanks to the pack leader who was strong, proud, and very annoying to me, flareon. He found a free den for the grumpy neighbour close to the stream, which he immediately accepted, since he was a vaporeon, and then gave water-type's den to the pair. Happy ending, but it was so late in the night that I had problems waking up in the morning to not be late to my job on clearing, the pack leader could be helpful, but could also be harsh.

My den was small, just enough to comfortably sleep inside, not being afraid of the rain. The typical den was much bigger than mine, having rooms to stock some food, maybe a water hole and some space for other useful eeveelutions families things, but being leafeon, I didn't need to eat, didn't mind having to walk a little to the river for water, and I was the only occupant, so I hadn't any reasons to have more than just one small room, anyway I was spending only the nights here. The interior was very simple: a few paces from the entrance was a place where I sleep, covered in dry straw, and that is all. Inside it was humid so I hoped that it would heal my leaves before morning. Just after a moment when I laid down on my (surprisingly more comfortable than normal) bed, I was asleep.

The dream was, as always, the same. It was so repetitive that I even felt bored just from being inside the dream. Being in the woods not so far away from the pack I was staying as brightly-brown slim but taller than average eevee. It was late at night, the full moon was barely visible through thick swath of clouds. After having fun with my best friend, I got lost, maybe I wasn't as afraid in this age, I felt as if the world belonged to me and there was no place I couldn't go, but I was a bit worried as I couldn't find a way back home. My friend was always better at hiding and older than me by three winters so I got used to it that I was losing in every possible game with him, but it never was making me nervous, but today he lost me very easily and completely.

On that day, he was already evolved and, as everyone who had a tendency to stay out too long at night and being good at hiding, he evolved into umbreon, blast him for that.

Why was I even trying to play hide and seek with a dark type at night?

We knew each other for quite a long time, we met because our parents were friends, later it even appeared that we are somehow related, five or six generations earlier.

I was walking for a long time. Just ahead, the forest overgrowth was mostly leafy and leaves were moist, covered in dew. I felt my legs tired, my head falling and my back hurting. Long walks never were my thing, but sprinting wasn't either. Close before the dawn, my way crossed wide in every direction with extremely thick bushes with long and narrow leaves, they were reminding me about spiky thorns and, for an unknown reason, I had a feeling that all of them were aimed directly at me. It wasn't easy to say what was their colour was since it was dark and in darkness, everything seemed to be dark, grey or even darker, but as an eevee, I started going through them without much effort. When I walked out of the opposite side of the bushes the environment around me started to look familiar, very familiar, just smaller than I had remembered. With another step forward I fell flat on my face and I fell from much higher than usual. It took me a moment to notice my new plant features, I wasn't eevee any longer but leafeon. I wasn't any longer or taller than average, but my slenderity stuck with me and created the impression of espeon's body shape with additions.

When this dream appeared the first, second and even third time, I thought that it was something good, a moment of my own happiness, a good memory that I knowingly or unknowingly wanted to see again, but as I dreamed about it, again and again, it started to worry me. Maybe there was something that I needed to see in it but I was missing every time?

I thought that it was something with my head, some illness or injury - maybe those bushes had some weird effect? That was possible too; I couldn't remember where that place was anymore. I had never found those bushes again, no matter how long I had searched for them.

When I returned, no one believed that it was me, even my own parents didn't recognise me. No one had ever seen a leafeon, and I had a feeling that they didn't understand every word I was saying. Luckily, there was one elderly vaporeon who explained to the other pokémon as well as to me what leafeon was. When I proved that I really was myself my parents were very sorry that they didn't recognise me. I was mad at them for it until I saw my own reflection. Because then, even I didn't recognise myself. I guess that seeing so many umbreons, espeons or other eeveelutions taught me to recognise them, but when I saw a completely new creature... well I needed to get used to it, but I didn't regret anything that happened.

Some of other pack members were saying that I just didn't want to tell where these bushes were because I wanted to be 'original' and the 'only one', but they quickly shut up when it appeared that my form was, frankly, useless. And no one really wanted to become 'like' me. Maybe I was weak just because I hadn't anyone who could be my teacher; a newly evolved eevee usually had an older teacher and in a few days could learn what they could do. But not me, I was still discovering my powers, very slowly, almost without any progress.

That was bad too, soon it would be a year since I'd evolved and I felt as if I was even weaker than before. And on the day of my birth; since evolution was considered as the second day of birth, I needed to show what I was capable of. I had hoped that some of the elders would be ill or at least feel ill so I could heal them, since healing was something that I learned. I also knew how to put someone to sleep by scattering some stinking dust thing from my leaves. Others said that it smelled nice, however to me, it was like smelling grass; young and wet, fresh with morning dew. All I had to show was being able to heal some small wounds (which didn't even hurt too much) and put others to sleep. I could ask someone to cut my tail and show how it slowly grew back, but I doubted that someone would want to watch that. There was still a chance that no one would examine me since there was no other leafeon so no one known what I should know. I still had a few weeks to find something more interesting to show off, but for now, it was looking bad.

I noticed that I wasn't even asleep anymore, I was just staring at the wall of my den, thinking.

I sighed. Another sleepless night lay ahead.

Do others think this much before they sleep too? Creating scenarios that didn't have a chance to happen, thinking about the meaning of life or reminiscing of what somebody said or did long ago. Maybe no one would notice if I took a nap in the clearing again. I really didn't feel responsible for my 'job' anyways.

* * *

In the morning, before everyone woke up, I went to the clearing, meeting again the same group of umbreons who were now returning to their dens. They smiled and said 'hello' and I answered in the same way. We had met like that every morning and afternoon since I evolved; every generation used to group up with themselves, so every day seemed to have a meaning, a connection. Even a single moon's difference in age was enough for us to group others as old, young or our own peers. These groups could become a whole world for us and so we were, the bunch of eevees. It was a time when a single lock of fur could make someone original and different. It was until maturity had come and painted everything grey. An irony of evolution: the point where everyone would start his own independent life made us even more similar to each other, then it pushed us into the ocean we once had been looking at from the beach, an ocean of exhaustion and worries, filling all time we once had with duties and things we just must do, leaving only moments to lift our heads above the water for a short breath and wave to the others who lifted their head before we return into covering our eyes and mouth, surrounding us in our ocean of everyday life. But even now, we were separate. Evolution had pushed us apart, and there was nothing you could do about it.

I knew what job they had, they were gathering fruits from clearing which I was stimulating by lying there, umbreons weren't usually used to it, they were for hunting, not gathering fruits. This was more of a punishment for the umbreons than a real activity but there was a reason why it needed to be umbreon or eventually sylveon. They were good to work at night when I was asleep. Everyone in the pack thought that I was extremely sensitive to plants because I am part plant, and there was some truth in that since I felt sad when I saw someone damaging nature, but it wasn't that powerful a feeling to force me to do anything.

Before evolution I was never very sensitive about plant life around me; even now I was repeating that I didn't care, but as I saw someone purposely stepping on or destroying some of nature I felt something that I wasn't sure what to name. It was similar to anger but mixed with sadness and a willingness to repair the destroyed thing. I was explaining this to myself as 'type'. The same thing that caused vaporeons to like water, espeons to be so arrogant or umbreons to insult or bite someone without any reason. My friend was umbreon and he told me that there was a great desire to do something that felt 'bad' and it was better to do it than wait until the desire grew into something that he might really regret. Umbreons were usually dealing with their darker feelings between each other since only they were active during the night and the rest were sleeping away in their dens.

I entered the clearing and went to my favourite spot in the centre. I walked a few circles in the place where I wanted to rest and I lied down. And just like the day before, I spread my leaves above me as much as I could. But I wasn't trying to make the stimulating process faster, I guess you could say I was just 'eating'. Not having 'normal' food has its advantages, it didn't need to be chased and I could have it while I was doing something completely different, and it was also unlimited. Maybe the clouds could block a bit of sunlight but nonetheless, I could take as much as I needed. Sometimes I would remember how things taste when I was an eevee, but these days I couldn't imagine myself 'eating' something different than the sun's rays, absorbing soil from the ground and sipping some water from time to time, I still could do it but it wasn't the same pleasure as it once was. The only effect of my diet was my sometimes smaller or larger leaves depending on how much of the sun's energy I absorbed.

But I would lie if I said that I was living only on photosynthesis, sometimes I needed to take something 'normal', even against myself, it was the kind of hunger which I wasn't able to ignore. Maybe the sun wasn't giving me everything that I needed.

My job could look important and worthwhile but honestly, it was completely unnecessary. No one really liked to eat plants; some of the fruits from here were occasionally sweet, but after I tried them once, my stomach ended up rolling for days. And the leaves were bitter and tasted gross.

Still, I was just doing that so no one could say that I wasn't doing anything when others had their tasks to do. That was our leader's idea; make everyone work somewhere in the pack. He was a little obsessed with his power as a ruler and was irritated when he saw other eeveelutions lazing about. After all, there was always much to be done around here.

While I was lying in the meadow I could see through the tall grass; some patrolling flareons were coming over. I could hear their harsh breaths from afar; the bright colours of their coats warmed your body just by looking at them, always sending excess heat out into the air. However, they looked like they were enjoying the heat, passing time with a discussion and looking around almost arrogantly. They would warm the rest of the pack during winter or melt some ice if it was needed, but there were only sunny days right now and they needed to play the guardian role. To be honest, it was very rare that they needed to really guard our pack from something anyways.

I couldn't hear their steps any longer, they had gone out of my hearing range. I was able to catch from afar a splash of the water though: probably some vaporeons who tried to catch fish or eevee who tried to learn how to swim.

Just another day here, in real eeveelutions utopia.

I saw that the clearing was entered by an older looking sylveon, keeping his feelers close by him. Near him, a vaporeon was set in a strange pose, like he was frozen but there was no ice.

Why this sylveon was chosen to keep other eeveelutions in good health always amazed me, since every time he had to heal someone he would come to me to ask for help. But he promised me that if I helped him, someday he would tell me what his feelers were made of. I personally thought that it was some kind of flesh and muscle, as it couldn't be any thin membrane like vaporeon's fins as it could move much more than fins.

"Hello, I..." he started. As always he was trying to involve me in conversation, trying to not let me think that he came here only for my, honestly, absolutely free help and I usually used that to pass some time. Paralysed pokemon couldn't hurry us as they were, well... paralysed. But we quickly ran out of the topics we talked about since neither he nor I were very interesting pokemon with lives full of stories and now he was only repeating himself.

"Yes yes, paralysis isn't it? Let me guess, another jolteon tried to 'help' with fishing? I'm surprised that you brought just the one then," I cut him off by examining the vaporeon.

"Actually, no. He fought with a jolteon. I'm not sure what the whole purpose of their altercation was because he didn't say anything," Sylveon said with his deep, monotone voice. Fights weren't very popular in our pack's everyday life. Training and sparring to improve oneself was fine. But jolteon never fought with vaporeon as the former had an advantage over the latter, as obvious as it was. Therefore, the winners would have been decided before the fight even began. It was also risky and dangerous to the vaporeon to engage in any bouts with the electric types.

I knew from first-hand experience how type disadvantages can hurt. Extinguishing burning leaves was very difficult to do on your own, and they grew back slower than usual after an afflicted injury. One time when I was walking along, I was unluckily in the line of "fire" when a nearby Flareon had sneezed, due to an illness he had, which set my tail aflame. We never fought one another, but the experience had been excruciatingly painful nonetheless.

"Okay leave him here for a while, he'll be fine," I answered, standing up from my spot to suggest he should put the vaporeon down in the grass, I didn't want him to put him on some of the more touchy plants as he had more than once in the past.

"Take care," he shouted, walking back in the direction he came from and happy that he just left his problem behind, I escorted him with my sight. When he disappeared between the bushes I sighed and turned to the vaporeon lying on the ground (not by choice) to meet his blank stare as he was looking straight at me.

"What? I don't need to like everyone here," I answered to his gaze which didn't change a bit. Feeling uncomfortable I walked around him avoiding his stare. I never actually 'learned' any healing abilities, it was more like 'discovering', in that I just knew them. It came to me on the day of evolution naturally and I didn't even need to put too much of my focus into using them, it seemed that healing paralysis was somehow connected to my natural aroma. Soon the vaporeon snapped out of its position and laid flat on the grass in a far more comfortable position than before. Being paralysed, he wasn't moving, but staying like that was far from 'resting'.

"Ouch," he sighed as he stretched, still lying. "Thanks."

"Was it really worth a fight with an electric type?" I asked him as I noticed he was looking better than before.

"It wasn't me who started it," the vaporeon defended himself as he stood up and looked at me curiously. His continued gaze on me made me feel uncomfortable again. Feeling perturbed, I thought to voice my concerns aloud.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. It's just I've never seen a leafeon before, I only heard that there was one in the pack," he answered sheepishly. "You were speaking weirdly."

"Like what?" I asked, but I already knew that there was something with me since evolution.

"I don't know. Different, it is hard to understand you. Just like, well, not an eeveelution," he judged and stood up. He was a little taller than me, but vaporeons were usually bigger than others from the pack. Still, he looked like he could be at least two years older than me, even though I knew he evolved only last spring.

"Uhh okay. I guess that you have a lot to do of... whatever you were doing before" I said quietly. There was no chance that our almighty flareon leader missed giving someone without anything to do yet another job.

"Right, I forgot, see you later," he said and in hurry followed sylveon's steps out of my clearing. I actually doubted that we would meet again; the 'pack' was, in reality, many connected groups of other smaller packs. I was living in the 'Middle' one, where east and west of our small world meet each other. Every smaller pack had its own leader, but above them, all was the one most important leader. The small groups hadn't many differences between each other, some of them, for example, had more vaporeons if it was close to the water. The furthest group was high in the mountains. The mountain was visible from the 'middle' and to get there you'd need to walk for two days. That group was considered 'traditional' since it only contained glaceons who left their dens only during the winter. Glaceons could live in a hot place like this clearing, but they didn't like it and it always took some effort for them to cool themselves down.

* * *

For the rest of the day nothing which could be considered as unusual happened; I napped a few times and walked around the clearing when I became bored of lying in the grass. Today I was just waiting for nightfall, tomorrow I had a free day, so today I planned to spend an evening with some friends. As my days usually passed by fast, today felt like the longest day in my life. I always felt like that when I was waiting for something.

But it finally it came, evening. I walked out of the clearing and as usual, I headed to the centre where there were numerous dens. Today I was earlier than usual, so I had to face the crowds of eeveelutions walking here on the invisible pathways of the dens. It was an instinct everyone in the pack had, knowing the routes between the many underground cave entrances. It wasn't possible to see what every pokemon was doing here in this mix of colours, but one thing was certain, it was really loud here. The buzzing of multiple conversations, yells, someone counting, yet another was singing and there were even lighting, flames and torrents of water flying in the sky; after all, presenting your abilities was a way to find a possible mate.

Another 'peaceful' day in the 'Middle'. I started making my way through the crowds, and while most pokemon ignored me, I got few stares from passing pack members; it wasn't possible to walk through this crowd unnoticed. I was answering with an artificial smile even if I didn't like being observed, I don't think anyone ever did. Some of them were just looking at me curiously as if they were seeing me for the first time in their lives, others looked at if they knew me but couldn't remember why, I probably healed them in the past. Others were looking at me with disgust, pointing at the leaves growing on my body. But that wasn't anything wrong with that at all, differences between eeveelutions were quite typical. Usually for espeons it was weird that jolteons had no tail; however for jolteons it was weird to have a long tail like a vaporeon had, so I could understand that the leaves on my body could look bad in someone's opinion.

Finally, I arrived on the opposite side of the centre, here there were far less 'eons'. I already could see my destination: a long lagoon created by the narrow but fast flowing stream of water. There were also some smooth, flat rocks sticking out of the grass; perfect to lay on during a sunny day.

It was a place of meetings and rest. At the beach, I didn't have to deal with crowds like in the centre, but there also wasn't a quiet, peaceful space. When I walked on the beach of the lagoon, I turned in the opposite direction of the stream flow's direction. Soon I arrived at a fallen tree full of cracks and holes, leaves lost from the long, tangled and naked branches spread in the water. I laid in the shadow of the forest's wall near the fallen tree. I liked staying in the sun, but I already could see that my leaves had had enough of the bright rays. They had become hard and dry. Even if they weren't sensitive enough to feel their pain, if someone touched them I didn't want to see them crack.

I saw that the sky had turned partly cloudy but they weren't dark and heavy clouds which could bring a storm. They were like white and light puffs or foam in the ocean of bright blue.

"You are late," said a grumpy, harsh voice behind me. As I turned my head I saw a midnight black umbreon exiting one of the biggest holes in the fallen tree. He was tall and sinewy, with unnaturally coloured shining rings on his body. I hadn't had any problems with recognising one umbreon from another but this one was very easy to recognise because of his blue rings and yellow eyes.

"Hey, how long were you in that hole?" I greeted him.

"Eh, I hoped that you would, at last, be surprised, Leaf," he said in much nicer tone now. Leaf wasn't my real name but because of being only one leafeon I got a lot of nicknames like leaf or flower and many other plant related titles.

"Did you ever find anyone who you could scare, Serge?" I asked.

"You would be surprised how many... but say, what were you doing last time, I heard that Sogot found you something interesting to do," he buttonholed me.

"Yes, he finally found something. That isn't much to talk about, my job is pretty simple. I'm just gathering sunlight and giving it to the environment. Sometimes Cyrus brings someone to heal, and that is all it is, from morning to night," I explained.

"Cyrus? Is he that sylveon?" he asked and I nodded. He continued, "Soon it will be a full year since you evolved, how do you feel about that form? I remember that you had different plans."

"It's fine, most days are okay, but if there isn't much sun then I get hungry at night. Technically, I could eat food, but with these teeth, it's not easy. Winter is also hard to survive through, this fur," I pointed at myself "doesn't completely warm me, I am freezing during cold nights even in the season of the sun."

"Yes I remember, you were glued to almost every flareon in your reach then," laughed Serge, reminding me.

"It doesn't produce any heat!" I said a little irritated. "It's more like a decoration, it's even preventing me from overheating so I can be in the sun much longer. Yours is the opposite. I'm almost jealous."

"Okay okay, calm down. I was kidding," Serge said nudging me.

"Liss won't come today?" I asked as some time passed and I still didn't see the female glaceon who was usually following us.

"No, don't you remember that glaceons spend the summer in the mountains? All of them," he reminded me. "But there are also advantages of it, we can look at 'whatever' we want," smiled the blue-ringed umbreon as he ran his vision across the lagoon.

"Wait until I repeat this to her," I answered also laughing. But it was true, from here we had a view of the almost whole lagoon, including the group of swimming females.

"Don't you even dare," he almost growled at me, again changing his tone to harsh and cold. It always amazed me how fast his expression could change from friendly to almost feral. I wasn't afraid of him but this always made me feel twitchy; my ears stood up, ready for anything.

"Okay, I won't," I breathed and it seemed that my answer pleased him since he returned to his friendly statement. I waited for him to continue, but for a second my thoughts drifted away. What if his sudden changes of mood were caused by his dark-type nature? He probably just woke up and didn't have time to defuse himself on someone or something. It wouldn't be the first time when I would have to face it, but now I wasn't in a mood for his bites or insults.

"So, which do you prefer now? Still jolteons?" asked Serge, quieting my worry and nodding his head to a female group's way, which, unfortunately, wasn't paying any attention to us. I actually never preferred jolteons but it was quite a rare eeveelution and Serge wasn't friends with any so he couldn't shame me on my choice. Just imagining if I said that I, for example, prefer umbreons. Serge knows a lot of them; one maybe two nights later and there wouldn't be an umbreon alive who didn't hear about it. He could be silent with my secrets since he was my best friend, but not this kind of secret.

"For now yes, but I've never seen a female leafeon, so you know, it can change," I replied. Water and electricity weren't a good combination, so there were no jolteons close to the river.

"Anyone 'special' on your mind?" Serge asked me suggestively.

"No, and you?" I returned his question.

"You may say that I have even more than that on my mind," he praised.

"No kidding, who is that 'unlucky' one?" I had a feeling that he asked me about my preferences only to have a chance to boast himself. It wasn't the first time when he asked me about it.

"Oh, you know her pretty well, you even mentioned her today."

"Really, you and Liss!? You two were always first to fight each other from the... well, as long I can remember," I said reminiscent, and he laughed. "But wait, if this is middle of the summer and glaecons are far away..."

"Yes, it was at the beginning of the winter; you were too busy trying to survive the weather and didn't notice anything," he cut me off.

"Sorry, but I could die if I hadn't been 'busy with that'," my irritation rose, yes I was taking the winter very bad but it didn't have to be mentioned over and over again.

"You don't need to yell Zar," spoke a new soft female voice. Hearing my name I turned my head to left and saw a graceful and slender espeon walking to us. She was another friend, maybe not as much as Serge, because we didn't know each other that long, but long enough to know not to be misled by her lavender coat's extremely attractive appearance. Hidden under that eye-catching look was her sharp and intelligent character. She was one of the youngest evolved eevee in the history of the pack; she evolved before her second winter when normally, first evolutions would happen when eevees had been through six or seven winters. I heard some rumours that her parent was feeding her with man-made food. It is said that pokemon raised by humans were growing faster, bigger and lived longer. Our flareon leader was an example of that.

Wild pokemon usually nurtured hatred toward domestic pokemon but this flareon fought for respect and a position for himself. The way to become the supreme pack's leader was brutal, he needed to fight and finally kill the earlier leader to take his place. It was supposed to prove his determination and strength, later he needed to find the power to make others follow him, but there was still a risk that the rest of the pack would just tear his body apart if they decide that pack can't achieve anything positive with him as a leader. I hadn't lived long enough to know who was the earlier leader since he died long before my birth.

...but why had thinking of Cera, that espeon, make me wonder about it?

Anyway, even if she was tall, she wasn't tall enough to say that she was using any stimulants or human's things, just natural items. How could she even get these things in the wilderness? But her living age, that was hard to tell. Evolution was considered as being born again because there were so many things changing. Not only appearance but also character, sometimes too much would change to even say that it was still the same pokemon. But previous experiences and memories didn't disappear. Everyone lived a similar length of their lives around here, so if she had a shorter life as an eevee then me, she would then have a longer life as an espeon then I had as a leafeon. In the end we would still have lived to a similar age, considering 'first' birth.

"Hello Cera, how are you?" I greeted her. I knew that she was talented in using her psychic abilities and could read what I had in mind, but she didn't use this advantage; she believed that the mind was private space.

"I am fine, I just woke up," she answered shortly and layed down to my left, on the opposite side than was Serge. I guessed that because of their type difference they didn't like each other too much, but also because she never was very social; it was actually rare that she would meet with anyone. But I needed to admit that lately, her behaviour was slowly changing.

"Funny, since I also just woke up," Serge commented smiling.

"How surprising," she answered to umbreon. "I was sleeping only because of the result of Sogot's request, he asked, no... required from me to use my psychic and learn what everyone is thinking! He didn't know about something called other pokemon's privacy which I am trying to respect. As much as I can obviously." she spoke very angrily, her tail waving furiously. Even the red gem on her forehead started to glow. "So maybe I should start with you two, what are you currently thinking?"

"Uh, I thought that he wanted you to do it by psychic," I said unsurely.

"That fucking human's pariah wanted that, but I don't want to do it!" she growled. She was one, if not greater adversary to the domestic raised pokemon, maybe it was caused by rumours about her fast evolution? "Imagine if every espeon was reading the mind of everyone around, you wouldn't have any secrets or thoughts like the ones Serge has at this moment, but I don't even need to use psychic to know what he is thinking." That made Serge look in another direction, which was once again towards the group of swimming pokemon.

"You don't need to worry, he is with Liss now," I felt weirdly speaking about my friend in the third person when he was just next to me. "But yes I would be upset if someone could know what I'm thinking in my head."

I didn't have much to hide, but more than once thought about myself as mentally unstable; not because of things what I was doing but thinking.

There weren't many espeon in the pack, which was dominated mainly by flareons, vaporeons and umbreons, but they were always giving off a feeling of worry. Cera, even as one of the youngest espeon, plus her years as an eevee, was one of most powerful psychic types in the pack and could quite easily do things like taking control of someone's mind and make them sing or jump, making objects fly, or even learn what someone was thinking currently, yesterday or even last winter. She presented it during her ability presentation which I had a chance to see, vaporeon, who she asked to be an object of her presentation, didn't even know that anything like this had happened.

If elements were allowed in the fight with the leader than she could probably even win, but it wasn't; the rules stated that it had to be fangs versus fangs so advantages or disadvantages of the type weren't that important.

But even possessing such great psychic power, she stayed 'normal'. She wasn't showing off what she could do, her presentation was the only time when she'd showed some of her potential. That again made me wonder what I could show at my presentation. I didn't need to make anything close to her psychic abilities or destructive dark power which Serge showed at his exam.

Maybe this trick with my cut tail won't be that bad?

"Anyway, I came here to relax, not whine to you two about my problems," she said now much calmer and softer. "Zar, could you use the same thing you use to heal paralysis?"

"I really wish I could but I recently overexposed my leaves in the sun and now they are very dry. I can't do anything," I explained, showing that they were really dry and brittle. Seeing that, she grimaced and turned her head to the water and her eyes glowed. After a moment from the river floated to us, a bubble of clear water.

"It does not work that way. Drinking water is helpful but I am not thirsty, they just need a while to rest," I said, guessing that she wanted me to drink.

"Shh, I planned something different," she said. Now the bubble of water was floating straight above me and slowly fell down. But surprisingly, my leaves absorbed all of it, becoming heavier and darker.

"What have you done?" I asked, concern lacing my voice. My leaves weren't dry any longer, but also it wasn't their natural state to have so much water in them.

"I just 'convinced' your leaves to absorb this water, now can you use them?" she spoke nicely.

"Yes I can," I confirmed. I could just imagine how much dew would cover me in the morning, I just hoped that I wouldn't change my den into a swamp.

"So what you were doing today?" Cera asked after the air was filled with the odour of grass, which visibly calmed her down. I actually couldn't understand how they could enjoy it, it was the air... exhaled from my body with a grass aroma.

"I woke up, ate something and came here. That's all," answered Serge.

"What were you eating?" I asked curiously but I could already guess that it was some meat.

"These new water pokemon which appeared lately in the river, they look almost like magikarp," he explained. "If I had to comment about them, I'd say they're heaven in the mouth, hell in the ass. So I'm not sure if I liked them or regret eating them."

"You could save us from your comment," Cera grunted with distaste as she rolled onto her side.

Serge was always quite direct when it came to a conversation with him, but I liked him for it. I could always depend on that he would be honest with me, with everyone, even if it would be just his dark typing kicking in.

So there I was, a weakling with two powerful pokemon as friends, once equal to them, or at least to Serge before he evolved; now I couldn't even get close to their possibilities. I felt lucky that I managed to get along with them in our younger years, who knows if they would even notice me if I would try to meet them now. They were actually the only pokemon in the pack whose help I could always depend on since my parents weren't living in the 'Middle' or any other part of the utopia. They decided that they had the world to see and they went to do it, another reason could be that they didn't want to agree to the new leader's rules and just when they weren't responsible for me they became 'free'. I sometimes felt sad about it...

My thoughts were disturbed by loud snoring, but it was the snoring of many mouths, echoing and coming from many directions. As I looked around I saw that Cera and Serge were deep in sleep.

"How you can sleep again, you just woke up!" I snarled but then I notice that my friends weren't the only one asleep but every eeveelution in my view range was lying unconscious. It took me a moment to understand what just happened; I still was exhaling my odour by instinct, not even thinking about it, and I changed it from healing to sedative effect.

I stood up and ran to the centre of the pack which I was passing through earlier, checking how far it went. It wasn't windy today but I wasn't sure how long I had done it. That was when I saw what really worried me, because I found out that everyone here was asleep as well.

"Oh fuck," I cursed and gulped. Putting pokemon to sleep during their rest time wasn't a really bad thing but putting the whole pack to sleep would cause me some repercussions, I just hoped that Sogot would be in good mood and go easy on me.

But to make things worse I saw the unnaturally big flareon lying just like the others on the ground, his size and muscular body didn't leave any doubts who it was.

"I am doomed."


	2. Ch2 'Fire and Rain'

**Chapter 2: Ch2 'Fire and Rain'**

* * *

Ch2 'Fire and Rain'

"Calm down he won't kill you for that," Cera said as calmly as she could. Right now we were in my den, but being in my place, all three of us weren't very comfortable; it was cosy, but tight. A few moments ago we talked with the jolteon who Sogot like to use in the role of a messenger. The message from the pack leader Sogot was simple, he was awaiting me in his cave. His invitation was not really an invitation, more of command really, but I couldn't force myself to stand up and go to him. On the other paw, making him wait could make my situation even worse.

"Remember that most of the pack enjoyed this nap. Sogot maybe will be angry and yelling at you but it is just him, nothing that would injure you," Serge cheered me, but his umbreon tone sounded vaguely threatening to me. Even though I knew him for so long, it was sometimes hard for me to recognise what emotion was hidden under the mask of his dark type.

But they didn't know how much Sogot and I didn't like each other. He already thought about me as... unnecessary, he was aware of my very critic opinion about him and there was one more problem which I actually shared with Serge. It was friendship with Cera. Sogot wanted to get her attention and because we were closest to Cera, he thought of us as competition, even if none of us ever thought about becoming more than a friend.

Cera had her tempting virtues but pack rules wouldn't allow to change our relationship; a mated pair could only have strength similar to each other. Strong with strong, weak with weak. Even if I didn't want to agree to it, I was in the second group. Not that I didn't have strength, I wasn't that bad really, but in the strength of my abilities, I was far behind.

"It is almost morning, I think you should not waste any more time," Serge said as he looked outside. I sighed but nodded, I needed to face him and there won't be any way to avoid this.

"Okay, I am going," I said and stood up.

"We will be waiting here, jolteon said that he wants to see only you and we won't cause any problems," Cera spoke and Serge almost contradicted her, but after he couldn't find any argument he remained silent.

I walked out of my den just when the sun appeared on the horizon and my leaves, because of how much water Cera put in them earlier, started intensively producing dew. Shortly after I was very wet. There was always some dew on my leaves in the morning but today it was as if I had walked in the rain.

It wasn't long until I arrived at the entrance of the cave, the entrance lit up from the inside by red light.

"Let's see what you prepared for me," I whispered and entered the cave.

* * *

"Zar, the one and only leafeon. The pokemon who caused... the last event," Sogot spoke deep, his reverberant and strong voice echoing from the high dome ceiling of the leader's underground rock den. It had been chiselled into the stone many years ago for the first pack leader, and was passed on since. The sound returned and made a trembling and droning noise in my ears, shrilling my mind and piercing my heart, followed by a rasping breath from a flareon of gigantic size.

I was in one of his rooms, in the room where everyone who wanted to meet with our leader would go. They would wait here see Sogot, the highest ranked leader, the strongest pokemon known to the pack; a defender, a ruler, a champion and even considered by some to be a small god in the body of a mortal. The entrance was lit up by a crackling fire in the centre of the broad and round room, but also by the flames which Sogot was keeping lit on his tail. He was walking, wandering around as if he was in a beautiful garden instead of this room. But he sped up, from a stroll to a brisk pace, moving from wall to wall in silence. The fire already was making me feel uncomfortable, I was weak to it and the view of dancing flames consuming what was left from the wood at the centre made me feel anxious, a great desire to just go out, escape, get myself far away from it was growing, but the flames on flareon's tail were even worse. They were much bigger, hotter and brighter, almost blinding, every time when Sogot was making his turn he waved his tail as if he wanted to throw them at me, to turn me into dust, to burn me alive, and his eyes were just like these flames. I saw in them hatred which I couldn't understand.

I was sitting close to one of the walls opposite to the exit of the room. The floor was cold and dry, the chill was another one of my weakness but this one I couldn't avoid. My teeth were rattling and I felt colder by the minute, my body shivering, screaming internally and he was still walking. Looking at my curled but trying to be proud body, making this moment longer and longer, like a hunter who is cornering his prey waiting for a moment to jump and rip its neck apart. That was how I felt, surrounded by one person, afraid of what he would say; he was pinning me down with his personality, overwhelming me with his power, making me feel smaller and smaller. But there was something more, something I didn't know and something that would be terrible and unavoidable for me. I saw it when I was looking at him and he was taking pleasure from my suffering. He was walking, his aura feeling so unstoppable and merciless, step after step, rhythmically pattering, and his paw was going down and shuffling and going back up-

But then he stopped and turned straight to me. I felt my muscles clench, my heart stop, my mind fill with a void. It was good that I was sitting, because if I wasn't I might have passed out.

"Highly critical about me and my position as leader, absolutely useless to the pack existence, not able to do any self-defence whatsoever," He started slowly, closing in on me and looking down at me from above. Now I could really see how unnaturally big he was; how someone could think that Cera used any of human's stimulant if there were eeveelutions like Sogot in the pack? "And now also a saboteur, who knows what your true reasons for the attack were? Did you steal something? Smuggled anything by without witnesses? You keep saying that you didn't do anything but you are known as a liar, _'only one'_. What lies lay behind the story of your evolution? How it is possible that someone as weak as you have friends as powerful as eeveelutions like Cera? There are rules leafeon, weaklings stay with weaklings, strong eons stay with strong eons, what is your power that keeps Cera's eye from everyone else? What kept her eyes from me!?" he roared.

What did he mean by that? Cera had her eyes on me? Maybe I was in some danger and she wanted to keep me safe? The other possibility wasn't possible, no, not her, not in that way.

"Uh, maybe because you are..." I started mumbling but I resisted saying ' a human's freak'; I could be angry and bitter, but it would make my situation even worse, not to mention the way which Sogot was going made me really scared. I wasn't lying but I also didn't know how I could convince him of that, I seemed to already be on his bad side anyways.. The knowledge that Sogot wanted Cera didn't surprise me; it was natural that the strongest male was taking the strongest female, but Cera obviously didn't want that. Sogot completely was ignoring every pack tradition due to his background, he didn't know it of course, so Cera also said that she won't care about it. Sogot was too proud to learn tradition; he tried and still was trying to force Cera to become his mate by giving her too many duties; like the latest request as well, he was also conflicting them with her morals. But even if he did follow the tradition which told us how to pair, he was at a losing position since there needed to be agreement from both sides; he didn't want to agree with that part. "... not in her eeveelution type." I finally mumbled.

"Or maybe they know what power are you hiding... That's why they kept with you isn't it, that's why you stayed friends for all these days isn't it?" he burst and spun around, his burning tail swiping inches above my head causing me to feel the heat and impulsively jump backwards, just to almost meet the stone wall behind me.

"Not everyone cares about other pokemon's strength, they stay because..."

"Because of what?!" he erupted and turned to me again. Flames on his tail became taller and hotter. "You are a selfish, sullen, weak half-plant. Why would they stay, for a gulp of your dew or a nice smell? That is bullshit."

 _Hey! No one drinks my dew._

I remained silent after seeing his rage, directing my vision to the floor. I was very angry at him, who did he think he was, yelling at me in this way. My friends, my business, my weakness, my problems, he had no right to speak of any of it. No one needed to work to live, the pack functioned long before he appeared and will exist long after he faded away, but I wouldn't see that. I looked up into his angry eyes, but now mine was also filled with rage how could he call me selfish, him, the most arrogant pokemon that existed on these grounds. I wanted him... I wanted him dead. No! How could I think that? He was yelling at me but how I could want to kill him? This situation was suddenly making me very tired, or maybe it was because of the stress, perhaps even both? I hadn't slept well since two days ago, it could be a reason behind this, it had to be; how could I wish for someone else's death so easily? Maybe I spent too much time with Serge and he shared with me some of his darker desires. I never thought this way before. I noticed that Sogot started speaking to me again but I missed the first few words.

"...w you will be helping in training and you will be fighting with EVERYONE who will come, I don't care if they're jolteon, espeon, or flareon, I don't care how much stronger they are than you, you will be doing your best. If not, I will personally assist in your training, using elements as well. Call your two friends over to me, wherever they're waiting for you. Dismissed." He said briskly and almost instantly stopped paying any attention to me. I didn't dare to ask him to repeat.

Slightly confused, I slowly rose and walked out of the cavern. So, I would be a punching bag. Great, that was fucking great. And he said that I would be fighting even flareons? That was dangerous! However, if I tried anything, Sogot would fight me personally and he is also a flareon, which would make it as good as a death match for me.

"Ah fuck it," I breathed quietly and focused only on walking through the forest; everything was still wet like me from the morning dew, sparkling of sunlight as if every leaf had hundreds of small shining stars clinging to it. Sogot's cave was only a little further than the river, a short walk from the centre, so it wasn't long before I stood on the bank of the river and turned right, to the shallows. Strolling next to the river, I found the shallows and started going through the narrow river, my paws halfway emerged in the cold, crystal clear water. The river's flow was calm today so I passed quite easily. When I stood at the opposite bank of the river I instinctively shook my body, rapidly losing the remains of my morning dew. Without all of this water in my leaves, I felt much better and far lighter; my leaves once again were waving freely in every breeze as if they were lighter than the air.

I could already see the crowd of eeveelutions busy with whatever they were doing, but since it was still morning, the crowd was much calmer than usual. Without any problems, I arrived at the entrance to my den and found my two friends in the middle of a conversation about the decor of some den, probably mine. They were just outside my den, waiting at the doorway, and I came up from behind them, surprising both of them.

"Thanks for waiting, I'm back but now he wants you two in his cave," I greeted them, interrupting their discussion..

"For what?" Cera asked, looking irritated.

"He didn't say, just that he wants to meet with you and Serge," I repeated.

"Okay, if he ordered it then we must go. I want to get it over with so let's hurry," Serge said, turning towards the direction I came from.

I sat down next to the entrance of my den, deciding to wait for them. The day was bright and sunny right now, but already I could see some thick, dark clouds slowly covering the ocean blue sky from afar. Even though the sun was high, the moon was still faintly visible, an incredible sight. The sun was always blinding; a great ball of light, causing pain to your eyes. But the moon, I could look at it without a second thought. Now when I focused on it, I could see the dark and slightly blue craters on its silver plate. As I looked at it longer and longer, I saw more and more details of the unequal terrain of this planet's orbiting skies as they flowered. It made me realize how small we were in this world, and how close to us things which we did not understand were, in our reach. So insignificant I felt, compared to the moon, to the sky, even my problems seemed like nothing. What would it mean if I burned to ashes tomorrow, if Sogot yelled, if even the whole pack disappeared? The moon would still be in the sky, and the world would keep going. My deep thoughts about the meaning of life were disturbed when the dark clouds finally covered the moon, and I felt the first drop of rain and heard the dull crackle of thunder from afar.

"Maybe I should have evolved into umbreon since I like to stare at the moon for so long?" I wondered, entering my home as I didn't want to become wet for a second time today.

 _Maybe I shouldn't talk to myself? It isn't sane._

I guessed that even if Serge and Cera end their visit in leader's cave they also would try to avoid the rain and hide in their dens. Cera's home was almost in the centre, her den had a lot of rooms and a few levels deep into the ground but wasn't built by her. Serge's place wasn't at the edge of the pack like mine but also wasn't in the centre, he dug his own den a long time ago, but lived in it for not very long; Sogot couldn't accept how the pack was looking and had decided on a plan to change it. The idea was to place the strongest eeveelutions in the middle and the weakest at the edge. I dug my home three winters after this. And now I regretted that I made it so small. Even being as far as I could from the entrance the rain still could reach me.

I moved to put my flank towards the entrance and put up my tail to hide from the splashing water; my tail was a great shield against water. It wouldn't get wet since it had no fur on it and it was broad, helpful to hide behind it, besides I had few nerves in it so I didn't even feel the rain hitting it right now. Lying like that I saw that there was a chewed stick lying just before me, I guessed that Serge brought it here when he was waiting with Cera for me. I judged that it was a good stick for him but not for me, I didn't have a jaw as strong as his.

The quiet and monotonous sound of the rain outside made me sleepy and because of the last night I completely wasn't sleeping I wasn't resisting to it for long.

* * *

Two things woke me up: I was inconceivably hungry and I was in half sunk in water. As I opened my eyes I saw that my den had changed to the... hole filled with water. It must have rained for a long time for that to happen. Now I really regretted that I didn't have another room or level where I could hide.

Not having many options I turned to the exit and walked outside, being met by heavy rain. Still using my tail to cover me from the water, I started going into the direction of the centre, wondering: should I go to Cera or Serge now? Theoretically, Cera's den was closer and Serge could be asleep now since he was nocturnal. But was it was a day or night now? It was dark as if it was night but it could be caused by clouds, was it possible that I slept a whole day away? That would explain my hunger, but I just felt as if it wasn't more than an hour or two.

Because of the current water level, the ground had changed into a field of slippery mud. Connected to the fact that I was almost blind in the dark, my walk was incredibly hard. I was slipping, stumbling and getting dirtier with every step. Suddenly my front paws sunk into the mud so deep that I met the ground with my face.

"Blah!" I spat trying to clean my mouth from the mud but it didn't help much. Spewing and cough I started to shaking off of the mud, even vaporeon wouldn't enjoy this rain, or maybe they would? Even if I didn't see very much in the dark, I had no problems with my hearing and didn't hear a sound. That would mean that I was the only one outside, but I really didn't want to be. From afar I heard dull thunder rolling through the landscape at a slow pace, spreading itself out.. That made me decide to go to Cera; a fear of thunder was natural for everyone, and even if jolteons could make some lightning bolts, it wasn't even close to being compared to the powerful natural electrostatic discharges between the ground and atmosphere. As if following the thunder, from the same direction from which I heard it started to blow very strong wind making it impossible to keep my leaf-tail umbrella, and my tail along with any other leaf on my body was now just chaotically waving like the trees around me.

I should have been close to Cera's den right now, 'should' because I couldn't see where I exactly was but I didn't see any trees nearby so I was somewhere in the centre of the clearing. Depending on memory only, I turned a little to the right and for the second time, I lost the ground under my paws and fell down. This time I didn't hit head first into the mud but into a transparent violet bubble. I didn't even stand up when the bubble blinked and disappeared and I ended up falling down once again, meeting dry ground this time for a change. I noticed that the bubble appeared once again covering the 'entrance'.

"I thought that you knew where the entry was and wouldn't try to enter through a window," said soft and slightly sleepy voice from my right and when I looked into voice direction I saw that at the end of the underground room was Cera. I couldn't see her clearly because of the duskiness but I saw that fur from her ears was very dishevelled, going in every possible direction but not into the direction in which it usually was set. I guessed that she slept on her flank and this was the effect of it.

"Hi, sorry but I was kinda lost," I answered sheepishly. "But what is that?" I asked, pointing at the violet sphere in the 'window'.

"It is a psychic barrier, I'm using it to prevent water from going inside," she explained as if it was as obvious as that the sky was blue, water was wet or jolteons eccentric.

"You keep it up while you sleep?" I was amazed by the usefulness of this thing.

"Yeah, it is quite easy actually but I wasn't sleeping, or at least not when you landed on it. It was easy to foresee that heavy rain makes your den... uninhabitable. I just wasn't sure to who you would decide to go to, me or Serge. So I woke up a while ago, since it is middle of the night right now."

 _If it was so easy to foresee then why she didn't put another violet thing in the entrance of my den? I wouldn't need to go to someone at all._

"Once again sorry," I apologised and tried to stand up but a powerful force pushed me to the ground.

"No no no, you will not walk around here with all this mud on you, let me clean you," Cera demanded and not waiting for my answer made her eyes shone. Whole mud just flew up from me, created a ball in size of my head and flew outside through the same hole from which I came. "I guess you are hungry since you missed a whole day, but I am not serving sunlight tonight," she said jokingly. "Anyways, come inside."

Even if the first room was already bigger than my whole den, Cera's real den started further. This den was built by many generations of Cera's family which, quite differently than other families, cared about each other even after evolution. Maybe that was a reason that almost every espeon came from her family. Actually, Cera lived here alone. As the strongest from her litter, she took the den while her family moved out, since then she could invite another eeveelution to live with her as a mate but so far, she was living here alone. Generally, it was very rare that anyone was even coming here, I or Serge were here only occasionally. But even as a friend of her there was a rule in her place: do not touch anything, and there was a lot of things to touch. In the deeper part of the den were rooms filled with treasures, glowing stones (pink one mainly), bones whose value I couldn't understand, and a lot of weird things which I didn't know how to name. Some of them seemed to be brought from the world of humans, but I wasn't sure since I haven't ever seen a human. I've only heard that they walk on two legs instead of four, have fur on weird parts of their body, and stink.

I didn't know how but that thought reminded me of something.

"Hey, Cera? Do you know why others say that I speak weirdly?" I asked following her as we were walking through the tunnel, lit weakly by the glowing orbs in the wall. The lighter parts of my leaves reflected the soft light.

"Because you are," she answered and met my meaningful muteness. "Okay, I'll explain it to you, let's just sit somewhere comfortable."

It appeared that the comfortable place to sit was five heaps of dry straw and leaves, five heaps of killed plants... but I tried to not think about it in that way. Stupid type thing, what other material was it supposed to be made of? Even I had my own bed made from them.

"About your speech, it's because you are the only leafeon here, and the other eeveelutions aren't used to your voice and it's different sounds," she spoke getting comfy on the one of the heap.

"What sounds?" I persisted, and followed her in settling down.

" _Lee, feon, leaf."_

"And similar ones," she said, completing her telepathic message. "Well, it was something that interested me from the moment when you evolved, I'm also currently trying to find out why your leaves are white at the bottom. It is quite easy to get used to this sound, I almost do not notice it anymore, but if someone hears you for the first time then it may surprise and confuse them."

"Uhh, I didn't even know that I made sounds like these, I sound very... indulgent," I said a little ashamed. _Was I really speaking like that all the time?_

"It is not that bad, nothing can be worse than that male sylveon accent. Yours is nice, I mean after I get used to it." she calmed me but I still felt bad with this news. "Any more questions?"

"If two espeon read each other's minds then what are they thinking about?"

She rolled her eyes after hearing this query, looking a bit annoyed but at the same time very adorable.

"A different question?"

"About the white bottom of my leaves," I acted as if my question was never spoken and moved my tail so it was clearly visible. "What you think about it? My theory is that it is white because I never use the bottom side to absorb sunlight. I mean, I would need to lay on my back so the bottom could collect sun rays but then I would cover up all of the rest."

"Well that is an idea, but your tail is flexible enough to use the bottom side."

Suddenly, the deafening crack of thunder came to us from outside. We both jumped from our seats and curled in together in the middle of the room. It needed to hit quite close if it was that noisy.

"Do you have a deeper level?" I spoke with near silence, speaking with my eyes more than my mouth.

"Yes," she confirmed, also silent. She stood up from the tight hug in which we inadvertently found each other and began to walk. I closely followed her to the room after room, each deeper and deeper underground. Finally, she stopped; the room had a low and flat ceiling but curved where the ceiling connected to the walls and where walls were turning into the floor. The den was mostly empty, in the middle was another glowing stone but this one was much bigger than the ones I saw earlier. It was embedded in the ground and touching the ceiling with its top. I could touch the same ceiling with my ears, but a glowing stone was still impressive.

We were deep enough underground that I couldn't hear the swoosh of the wind or rumbling of the rain against the ground. Fear of thunder was ridiculous, since we knew that the chance of getting hit was practically nothing and noise couldn't hurt, but instinct was a thing which could not be ignored. When I felt that we were 'safe' here, I turned my eyes from the stone to Cera.

"What are these stones? You have a lot of them," I questioned and waved my paw at the one before us.

"I honestly don't know. Many generations ago when our pack didn't exist yet, some of my ancestors were collecting stones and they found somewhere a cave with these glowing stones. As you can guess, they took as much they could of them. Now it just a source of light, so this is possible to have a den in this size and not have to be an umbreon to see something inside of here," she answered, sitting down once more.

I also sit down, I still felt hunger but I tried to ignore it, generally, I still could ask Cera for something 'normal' to eat, but I wasn't sure how my belly would react to a food after almost a full year without. For now, I was resisting my hunger, but if this night lasted any longer, then I would have to eat something.

"So, how was your meeting with Sogot?" I asked, after an unpleasant moment of silence. She sighed and looked at me with a bored expression; it was obvious that it wasn't her favourite subject. I also didn't know why had I asked for it, it could make her only angry but I just hadn't thought about it.

"Just like always, 'we the strongest should be together', 'your resistance is making the pack weaker', 'with me you can be something more'," she answered trying to imitate the deep voice of our leader flareon. "If every pokemon raised by humans is that dumb, humans should be banned."

I actually didn't want to go into it, even if I was somehow involved in it, but I couldn't resist saying something more about Sogot's attempted wooing.

"Well, I think that could work on most of the females from the pack," I said.

"Yes, you are probably right, but that is good. When he becomes bored of asking me over and over again and ask someone else, she would agree faster than Sogot would have a chance to change his mind," she said and yawned, it seemed that the fatigue of being woke up in the middle of the night finally returned to her. Even if she was fighting it, the pull of sleep was visible, and her big, blue eyes, much brighter than any other espeons, were slowly closing against her will.

Suddenly her head fell down and with it, the rest of her body. She would have hit the ground if I hadn't jumped to support her. Half lying on my back half sitting on the ground she completely fell asleep, leaving me in a really uncomfortable position. But I actually shouldn't have been surprised; she was espeon, eeveelution which is active during the day just like me. In addition, this espeon was Cera, who slept for a long time, just like I would have had the storm not ruined _that_ plan.

As slowly as I could, I slid from under Cera and gently placed her on the ground; she didn't wake up. Doing that I realised how nice her fur was to touch, so delicate, fine and soft. I had the desire to touch it again but I resisted, settling for just lying next to her, not sure what I should be doing right then. Theoretically, I could walk around here but I felt that there was something wrong with walking around in a friend's den while she was asleep, so I stayed where I was.

The darkness was disturbed only the dim light of glowing stone and the silence by Cera's rhythmic breathing. I was lying on my stomach on the ground with my head between my forepaws. Even if the ground here was made of stone, it wasn't cold at all. I wasn't sure why, there had to be some techniques to keep a den warm but I knew only one: to gather straw, leaves or other things which seem to keep warm. Serge knew more about digging dens than I did.

 _Maybe should I ask him how to prepare my den for the rain?_

It wasn't the first time it rained heavily, but usually, I had a tree next to my den's entrance for protection. Unfortunately just as heavy rain season ended it was burned with some other trees to make space for new dens.

The silence and duskiness jaded me, and despite that, I wasn't tired my eyes kept closing. Just as I closed my eyes someone tapped me on the back. I almost yelled from the surprise as a single spasm went through my body. I hadn't heard anyone come in.

"Hi," I recognised Serge's voice when he greeted me in a whisper, and when I looked at him he gave a sign with his head to go with him outside. I silently stood up, throwing fast look in the room before I followed the umbreon; Cera still asleep. I couldn't really see Serge, my weak eyesight in the darkness and the dark fur of the umbreon made me see only a few floating, shining blue rings in the air. That let me knew where he was, but was the ring I assumed was on his head really on his head, or was it his tail? The lights in Cera's den could be really confusing.

"It is nice to see you, but what you are doing here?" I asked as we were far enough to speak normally and not disturb Cera's sleep.

"It was hard to miss the signs of this rainfall coming, so went to check on you just when it stopped," he said still leading me through the dark corridors until we were in the room with 'window'. "Your den is, well, I think you probably need to dig a new one since your old one collapsed. I came to check if you were here before I went to dig in the mud to look for your body."

 _Was I the only one who didn't see the rain coming?_

"Uh, thanks. It is good to know that you care, but my den, is there really nothing left of it?" I questioned, a little sad. Maybe I didn't have anything valuable there, but I had dug it when I was an eevee and back then, it was a proud achievement.

"No. But don't worry, as the noble Azor always said 'Unexpected work always... eh, fuck I forgot the rest, he said something wise I think." Serge said finally turning to me. Azor was the name of a pack leader from very long ago and his name used to fit some sayings, he was a kind of symbol these days. I noticed that Serge was smiling, but I didn't like his smile. It wasn't the first time I'd seen it. "But I see that you took advantage of this rain, how was it 'I prefer jolteon', heh?"

"It wasn't anything like that I just..."

"Went to Cera, in the middle of the stormy night, trusting that she welcomes you into her warm house," Serge recapped keeping his smile on. "And then I found you two asleep, deep underground, together. So how it was? I didn't see any mess so I guess you were done quite fast."

I couldn't resist and spun around, slapping him in the face with my tail. It was more like a dab than a slap since I missed due his quick reflexes.

"Hey! You two are of similar age, and I'm just curious how two inexperienced eeveelutions would do it."

"We didn't do anything!" I screamed at the top of my lungs angry and embarrassed. In the same time, both of us lifted ears trying to hear if our espeon friend woke up, if Cera heard it I would be shamed for the rest of my life.

"If it is hard for you, I can talk first and tell you about my time with Liss," he proposed a moment later after we didn't hear anything.

"Wha? You... no how how did you even appeared here?" I mumbled, trying not to scream again. "These are psychic barriers in entrances."

"Yeah, but they don't affect me, I'm a dark type," he praised, forgetting the Cera discussion. He was sometimes irritating, but if he managed to stand my company then I will stand his.

"Is it daytime already?" I asked.

"It should be morning right now; when I was entering this den it was already well-lit, but it is still drizzling," he said and scratched his ear with one of his back legs. Then I noticed that he was completely dry, and he shouldn't have been if he was outside.

 _Maybe the water can't go through the psychic barrier, even on an umbreon._

"Rain doesn't really bother me, I was starving the whole night. I'll use whatever sunlight there is, even during rain," I said and made my way to the exit.

"Don't rush so fast, I can go through the entrance, but you are not dark type. You need to wait for Cera," he spoke and passed next to me. "Also, did you realised that if it still raining there are clouds in the sky?"

"Some of the sun always go through the clouds. Are you not staying?" I said from behind him.

"No, I'm nocturnal. I already should be asleep. I hate mornings, I have a headache from the daylight already," he answered back, and disappeared from my sight going out of the den.


	3. Ch3 'Another Day, Another Night'

There I was, sitting just before a pink barrier of psychic energy trying to catch some light, but unfortunately, I couldn't reach any light with my leaves. I was sentenced to starving and even the energy that was blocking my way outside seemed to be appetizing.

How does psychic energy taste anyways?

From the colour, I would like to say that it was sweet, but how was it really? I decided to test it. I licked it slowly from the bottom to the top and stopped with my tongue still touching the barrier. The taste was weird, it wasn't sweet, that was certain, but it also wasn't bitter. In the same moment the barrier winked and disappeared.

"Ahhhh, why did you do that?" I heard Cera's voice from behind me, it caught me so surprised that I forgot to hide my tongue when I turned to her. "Why did you lick the barrier?"

"I wanted to try and see how it tasted," I answered with hesitation. "I thought that you were sleeping."

"I was, but I can't sleep when someone is licking me!" she puffed; she hated to be woken before she decided that she wanted to be up and about.

"You felt that...?"

"Of course I felt it, never again try to lick my mind!" she barked, and I felt myself shrink just a little under her gaze.

Well, at least, I know what psychic tastes like now.

"Sorry. But thank you for letting me stay the night, by the way," I said kindly. "I guess I'll get going now."

"You're welcome, I will stay here... for some more time," Cera answered with a yawn, and went back to the depths of her den. I wondered if she should be overjoyed for the arrival of the morning, just like an espeon usually would be. Maybe not everything depends on one's type?

Not wasting any more time, I jumped out of the den into the warm rays of the sun, my leaves starting to work immediately, but I didn't stop to lay on the ground; I had enough of lying down lately. I walked in my den's direction at a brisk pace. I wanted to check how it looked right away and why Serge had said I should build a new one. During the day it was much easier to walk, avoid puddles, and dodge joyful vaporeons enjoying their favourite weather. Muddy ground and puddles were not much of as much of an issue as they were last night, at least until any jolteon came around.

After a long walk of zigzagging to avoid puddles, I arrived at a place where my den was- or should have been. Now there was only another puddle with two vaporeons in it.

"Do you need something?" asked one of them, not very kindly but still friendly, when he noticed that I was staring at them, or rather at the puddle.

"Uh, I think I used to live here," I answered him, not bothering myself any longer in avoiding the water, I was wet anyway from my dew, not nearly as much as last time, since no one was trying their 'stimulating' technique on me, but it was still tangible.

"We all live here, it is something called a pack, a group of one species living and sharing the surrounding area," replied the second one, much older than me or the other vaporeon.

"I actually meant this specific place, right under your paws," I determined. "It was my den before it started to rain."

"Oh, I'm sorry, we thought it was just a deep puddle. You see, my son over here didn't know how to swim, and I was trying to teach him," 'father' explained, visibly embarrassed and started to get out of the water. Even if it was now only a puddle, it was still 'my' puddle.

"No, you can stay, I can't use it anyway now," I said before they manage to stand on the ground. "But if..." I paused, pointing at younger water-type.

"Struga," the older vaporeon hurried with his son's name, who already looked as if he wanted to run away, maybe it was a shame for him that he couldn't swim.

"But if Struga can't swim, then how did he evolve into vaporeon, I thought that you needed to spend a lot of time in the water to evolve that way?" I asked, since even me, Serge and Cera could swim a bit swim, or at least not sink like rocks or flareons.

"I was drowning and evolution saved my life," Struga said, ashamed but looking up at me calmly. "I don't know how to swim, I am trying to learn. Right now, I just... walk around the edges of the lake and carefully in the river."

It was reminding me about my problems with my evolution, how I didn't know what I could do, what my purpose was and my...

Hey wait, I still don't know any of those things!

I was even lower than Struga was, since he at least knew what he needed to learn. But me? I didn't even know where I should start, should I try to improve my ability to absorb the sun, learn something more about exhaling smells, or maybe something completely different? I knew why Struga was ashamed, I was too, it was this silent and small emotion at the bottom of my heart which stung from time to time.

"We had to go anyway," older vaporeon broke the silence. "Goodbye... leafeon." He said and went his own way, his son following him. I just looked once more at my puddle-den and start walking in the direction of the forest, without any reason.

The storm didn't miss the forest. The entire floor was covered by fallen branches, most of them still having green leaves attached, making it even harder to walk and see. I tried to clear away a few of them, but just as I lifted one of the branches I heard someone approaching me from behind. It wasn't in a sneaking way, just a noise of four paws lumbering on the still wet ground.

"Hey, I just forgot to say that... WHOA is that some kind of leafeon ability?!" I hear a voice and just as I turned I saw Struga standing there, a little astonished. I let the branch fall from my muzzle and unfortunately, it fell on my paw.

Fuck! I thought but I only grit my teeth and hissed quietly.

"Ah it was only a branch with leaves," Struga said a little disappointed, he was now without his father and he wasn't in water so I could see how exactly he was looking like. His posture was rather slim and his height was shorter than average for vaporeons, but it still made both of us similar; maybe he was just like me, newly evolved. Despite it, he was still much longer in his body shape but that would be weird if he wasn't. Vapoerons were always the biggest eeveelutions because of their length."I just wanted to ask you for a favour, could you keep in secret what I have told you? I don't want others to think that my evolution was a mistake and even more I don't want anyone to know that I can't swim."

"Okay... I can keep it as a secret but why did you tell me if it's a secret?" I asked, trying to understand his logic.

"My father was so upset by us walking on your den without permission that he would tell you about anything that you would ask him. He would tell you the whole story, about my whole past, so I made it shorter and well, less embarrassing," Struga explained. It did make sense when he said it that way.

"It's just a puddle now," I replied, not wanting to return to my destroyed home.

"Yeah, see you later then, I guess." vaporeon said, and turned to walk away. I also turned, but towards the forest once again. However, I didn't find any willingness to clean here any longer. I walked back to the pack centre but a different way then Struga did. I thought that it would be strange if, after saying goodbye, I would follow him. Besides, Struga appeared to be friendly and nice so far, but I didn't really know any vaporeon before and I always thought that were are sort of rude. Maybe because of the unusual membranes on their flippers and strange spikes going through their spine, or maybe it was something else. Anyways, I was nicely surprised. But a sudden unpleasant and not-really surprising sight was a familiar sylveon who, just as he spotted me, happily started walking my way; it seemed that smile never left Cyrus's face.

"Hello there leaf, how are you doing?" He accosted kindly in a loud voice; there were many others speaking here, in the crowded centre of the pack, so it was hard to discern one voice from another. "Do you need any... medical help?" I looked at him tellingly and he harrumphed with a nervous chuckle. "Obviously you don't need any, heh, so, umm, would you mind to take a look at few ill eeveelutions and eevees?"

Again...

"I guess I must," I sighed, but I gave him an enthusiastic smile and nod, masking a silent grumble when he was busy by just being happy that I agreed.

"Follow me then, they're just at the beach at the river lagoon," he said taking a lead and I followed him. "How you were doing in the storm, it was quite a strong one."

"I ended up with my friend in her den, it was quite nice actually but my own den was completely destroyed," I answered him, realising that really was an unpleasant storm for me.

"In 'her den' you said, who is this mysterious 'she'?" Cyrus asked, looking back at me with another one of his smiles. I didn't know if it was just me but every time I looked at a sylveon, maybe with exception of Cyrus but every other sylveon that smiled at me made me feel happier. But more problematic, he asked me with whose den I was in last night! One idiot named Serge knowing was enough for one day, and I didn't really want to talk about it with Cyrus. It would even be unfair towards my umbreon friend, since I didn't tell him anything that happened last night but... wait, where are my thoughts going? I didn't tell Serge anything because NOTHING happened! Cera greeted me, cleaned me, talk a little, both get scared and went to sleep. Just nothing to talk about. However, how I would explain that I just slept in a den of a higher class eeveelution than me or Cyrus.

"Ehhh, you don't know her anyway," I answered evasively. "But what happened to the eeveelutions where we're going now?"

"Oh, yes I was about to tell you. Just as always, before four times when the moon is round like a currant, the season of storms is starting to be followed by the coldness and white snow..."

"Wait, wait, hold on, how much of time means four times of the somewhat shaped moon?" I questioned quite puzzled. Yeah, umbreons and sylveons knew some of the moon pattern stuff, but I was absolutely green in it.

"It is two times more than the time which the moon needs to change his shape from left-half white currant to right-half white currant," he hurried with his really 'helpful' explanation.

"So is it long?" I asked once again trying to not catch a headache with his explanation. I am not some fucking umbreon who can calculate moon currants in the night sky, no offence to Serge. Cyrus opened his mouth to answer me but before he could I fastly added, "Answer only yes or no!"

"Yes," he answered with a little hesitation. "But what was about to say, because of these storms and a fact that in the pack is currently a lot of unevolved eevee there probably will be a sudden increase of jolteons. And that's just what happened, one of the eevee evolved into jolteon while she was in the water and when she saw her reflection she frightened herself so much that she shocked everyone in the river."

"Shouldn't these eevees be under someone's watch or something?" I asked quite surprised by the event and even more, I was surprised and confused when older sylveon started to laugh.

"Hehe, under a watch? Most of them are older than you, some of them even by two winters!" He said and laughed once again. Then I realised that it was almost Serge's age. I was aware of how eevees evolve and that age isn't really important; how I could be not, I was an eevee once too, but if something like this happened I would expect some young group, not older eevees.

The effect of being shocked would fade with time on its own, but it was always harsh and unpleasant. Electricity was dangerous but newly evolved jolteon couldn't make any real harm even to small eevee that would be permanent. Wild energy was always quite weak and dispersed.

When we got closer to the river I saw a group of unconscious small brown creatures. Next to them was a few also not moving eeveelutions, mostly vaporeons but also three umbreons and a lone espeon. The only one standing in the whole group was a jolteon, probably the cause of the massive shock. She was lucky that Sogot was a flareon and never even walked close to the river, if he did, she would be invited to a talk similar to mine. The jolteon was short, with fur similar in colour to a daffodil. Her fur-spikes didn't look sharp or even able to sting, probably because she was in the water lately. She had a very nervous stance; she was standing in place but also rapidly stepping from paw to paw, looking around. She wasn't facing us, she was paying her whole attention to the paralysed eeveelutions. We came from her left side.

"Hey! I am back!" Cyrus greeted her, in the same moment the air was pierced with the sound of a crack and for a moment the jolteon was lit up with light. It reminded me why I didn't like to be anywhere near these electric types, they could just sneeze or fart and you were fried. Luckily, both me and Cyrus were far enough to avoid getting hit.

"Uh!" the jolteon breathed surprised, "Sorry, sorry! I didn't want- uh I'm just new, it just... ehm," she blurted with the speed that I almost didn't understand her. She walked closer and I saw out of the corner of my eye that, the sylveon next to me warily took a few steps back. That made the jolteon freeze for the moment and her eyes watered. "You-you are scared of me! Please, don't be! I don't want to do anything to you, it was all accident!" she was at the edge of cry.

"No no, we are not, right Cyrus? Just calm down," I tried to comfort her somehow.

"You're not? Thank you!" she screamed and jumped, rubbing her head against my neck, and this was when another crack came in, electricity immediately jumping from the jolteon to me.

"AAAaaaa-it doesn't hurt that much actually," I started, my cry more due to surprise than real pain. The last time I was shocked was quite a long time ago and it hurt a lot; it still wasn't pleasant now, but rather a weird feeling, not painful.

"It didn't?" Cyrus asked surprised. "It looked rather serious."

"Not at all," I answered, "What your name anyway?" I asked the less nervous jolteon, snapping her out of her blank stare.

"Navia" she said kindly. That was quite a nice name to have, I thought.

"My name is Zar," I answered and then turn my sight to the paralysed pokemon. "It will take me awhile to heal all of them."

"Then I won't be bothering you any longer, good luck and have fun!" shouted sylveon, and I didn't even notice him vanish.

Why am I helping him anyway?

"It looks that I need to use your help since the only one able to grab things just left us," I spoke to the Navia.

"Okay," she replied without hesitation but then added, "What if I shock them again?"

"Try not to," I said. "We need to move them into a tighter group, that would be easier for me to heal them, let's start with eevees."

I walked to the smaller pre-evolution and grabbed one of them with my mouth by the furry collar. Navia made the same but just as she wanted to walk, she stumbled against her own legs and fell on her face and a really unlucky eevee.

"Oh sorry!" she apologised the eevee as she stood up and again started sparking with electricity. "I am not used to this larger body yet."

I left it without comment since I had my mouth full. She wasn't much help and I formed the group mainly by myself before I went into the middle of it and lay down on my stomach. I needed to produce a really big cloud of that specific 'smell' so every eevee could inhale the healing energies. I wasn't really in the mood to do it, but I still had to force myself to do it. The joys of being the best healer in the pack, I guess...

* * *

The sun was close to the horizon when the eevees started to stand up but the cloud, which slightly coloured the air around in green, was a little bigger than I meant for it to be. It still managed to reverse all of the paralysis of the injured pokemon.

"I'm sorry for you being paralysed like this, I hope we can still be friends!" the jolteon hurried with an apology to her eevee friends. "Heh, it is strange how small you look to me now." She added when she walked closer to them.

"Don't apologise to us, we all congratulate you on your evolution!" someone from the group called out. I couldn't see which one and I had no interest to find out. I stood up and walked out of the river bank; night was coming and I had no place to sleep.

I walked to the place on the hill from where I could see one of the river's lagoons and where I usually met my friends. There was a fallen tree here that had enough empty space for me to fit inside. I didn't enter it yet though, instead I sat down on the grassy field before the tree.

The sun was slowly hiding behind the horizon, just where the river flow. Last rays of the sun made the river look like a path of the gold honey but also was reminding me about the jolteon from earlier and her power. Navia, that jolteon, she just evolved today and had difficulty with walking and controlling her lightning bolts, but she would spend few days under the care of another more experienced jolteon and soon I would be a weakling compared to her. Serge at my age was already a 'normal' umbreon, not the strongest or the weakest from the pack, but nothing to be laughed at. Cera became powerful even earlier than that. Everyone was improving, they all had something to working on or something that they had achieved.

I was the only one stuck in one place; I couldn't learn anything more, I couldn't find out what I could do. Or maybe what I already knew was all that I would ever learn? Maybe my evolution had no greater purpose than doing a sylveon's work for him and causing plants to grow?

No, there has to be something that I could do. I need to try something else, anything.

I caught some of the last sun's rays, changing them into energy through my leaves and forcing it into the grass before me. I felt a sudden pain from the unexpected forcing of my leaves to work and I panted from the effort, but to my disappointment, absolutely nothing happened. It didn't appear as any dark sphere like what Serge could do, nor a psychic illumination, not even a spark of light, or whatever.

"AHHH! Fuck this!" I shouted, not being afraid of being heard by anyone, it was really rare that someone was coming here. "Fuck this grass, fuck all this leafeon shit! Why I couldn't evolve into a flareon!? I was trying but no, fuck your efforts Zar, here you are now, the most useless evolution possible!"

I was angry for what happened, but at the same time, I felt completely powerless about it. I was always fascinated with fire, with its warmth and energy but since I evolved, all I ever felt was panic and fear just at the sight of even the smallest flame.

"I thought that I would never again see kind of passion," spoke a voice from the darkness. I jumped, my anger gone in my surprise. But instead of any monster roaming the night, I saw Serge, his rings almost invisible in the dusk of the forest. It wasn't that dark just yet, but umbreon always seem to melt with a shadowed environment.

"That was almost like you before your evolution, but back then it wasn't caused by anger," he continued.

"Ah shut up," I mumbled, sighing and sitting down. Serge joined me, dropping down next to me.

"So what's wrong?" Serge pushed to a conversation.

"Didn't you hear already?" I barked back, I wanted to keep to myself the fact that I didn't like my appearance.

"From what I heard I can guess that it's something to do with you evolution, but your actions don't make much sense and I can't see your thoughts," Serge said, sounding as kind and calm as his harsh umbreon's voice allowed him.

"I just think... Sogot probably has a point. I am useless to everyone here. Cyrus is the only one who has any use for me but it isn't often that some jolteon paralyzes a bunch of eeveelutions," I explained, my mask crumbling. I knew that Serge would push me as long as it took for me to say what was on my mind.

"Opinions are like asses, everyone has their own," said Serge, looking at the moon as it rose above the horizon. Now it was getting dark, and Serge, who was still next to me, was getting difficult to discern with my poor night vision.

"Who said that?" I asked after a while of thinking of the sense of his words.

"Me," answered Serge not losing his stare from the moon.

"Maybe you shouldn't think about sayings, it doesn't sound really inspired," I said, and tried to see what was so interesting in the silver oval in the air. But it was just a moon. I preferred to see it during the day, then I could see it with more details.

"But it is hard to ignore," said Serge, finally turning his eyes to me. His eyes seemed to glow more and more as it got later in the day, just like his blue rings. "Sogot said you are useless because he is afraid of you."

"What? Sogot, our leader, afraid of me?" I said surprised; how could the leader of the pack be afraid of someone like me? "Are you sure?"

"I am a dark type, I always know when someone is lying and when someone is scared. It is just like a scent in the air; it can't be mistaken for anything different," the umbreon explained. I couldn't see his face anymore, just the light of his rings; they looked as if were floating in empty space.

"Why he would be afraid of me? I hadn't any plans to become a leader or fight with him in any other way," I asked my friend.

"(Cough)Cera(cough)" he coughed.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, I had something in my throat but I wanted to say that Sogot was raised in the different world than we know. I wasn't in that world, but looking at Sogot I can say that it had to be a very cruel world out there," he moved his paw to point ahead, or I guessed that he did it from the movement of his rings.

"You mean... in the darkness or night?" I asked unsurely.

"I mean behind these mountains and towards the horizon, the one always covered in clouds slowly climbing up its sides," he explained. "Sogot thinks that you have some power which he can't see, he thinks that is the reason why you are friend with me and Cera. But he hasn't seen anything so far and when he asked others, no one knew anything. So he grows suspicious that you are hiding something."

"Sogot doesn't know friendship, that I or Cera can just like you, not requiring from you any abilities or benefits. He is from a world where only power matters. I just hope that we won't ever have to face this different world." said Serge.

"Isn't that just ignoring the problem? To separate us from... "

"The world of the humans is not something that should ever be faced," he cut me off briskly. "You know that Sogot is strong here, but he escaped from them with his tail between his legs. I know that it is not in your style to stay in one place, with every year you like to go further and further in the wilderness, but please, don't go too far because if you do, I would need to find you and bring you back. Then I will show you how bad umbreon can be. You will be yearning for when I was 'just' insulting and 'just' biting you"

"Okay, okay I understand, don't scare me that much or I won't sleep at night," I said it jokingly.

"Heh, I guess I went a little too far," Serge said sheepishly, and his rings shone much brighter. "But about tonight, where are you planning on sleeping?"

I turned to the fallen tree, knowing that his eyes would be able to see it in the darkness.

"Really, you wanted to sleep in there?! I mean, it's not that bad for a nap but I won't allow my friend to sleep here when there is a much more comfortable place to sleep," Serge said standing up.

"Really? Where?" I asked, moving to rise.

"I am nocturnal, I don't use my den at night. You can sleep there until you rebuild yours, and this time properly prepared for everything." Serge said.

"Can I really stay? Oh, thank you, you are really saving me now," I couldn't hide my happiness in my voice, but maybe I shouldn't. Nights could be cold and I was worried enough about the prospect of enduring it in that log.

"Yeah sure, it's not a problem for me. But if you prefer to go to Cera, then... ," his eyes sparkled yellow when he said it.

"And give you even more weird ideas?" I muttered. "No thanks. Could you guide me to your den? I'm blind at night and, you know, last time when I wandered alone in the darkness I evolved."

"Sure, just follow the light."

Serge really was trying to guide me properly but his blue rings weren't making as much light as yellow ones would make. I was stumbling on almost every little thing. The clearing in the night only slightly lighted in blue looked very strange for me; I couldn't recognise any places we were passing, only somewhere far ahead I saw another yellow light.

"There are a lot of umbreons in the pack right?" I asked Serge from behind him.

"I don't remember the exact number but yeah, probably the second or third most popular evolution. Why are you asking?" replied Serge, forcing himself to exhale a little more light so I could see a puddle I would have probably walked in.

"We are going through the centre of the pack and we haven't met anyone, but there are some lights over there," I pointed out, it seemed to be weird for me. Others eeveelutions were always grouped up here.

"What made you think that we are in the centre?" asked Serge with a smirk.

"We are not?" I answered with a question.

"We are. I'm just messing with you, what's your point?" Serge grumbled.

"Why we are here alone? I didn't see any other umbreon, only from far away from where there are some lights," I finally asked.

"It's their dark desire."

"What you mean?"

"These umbreons were waiting whole days to satisfy their desire. I chose the empty path so they won't do it on you," Serge explained.

"You mean, insults and biting? It's not that bad, I got used to it after all our spars," I said, but even as I spoke I wasn't sure if these things were what Serge was talking about.

"No, there are much worse things, I was never completely honest with you about living as a dark type. Generally, it was the purpose why I was looking for you today but I didn't want to give you my problems seeing that you have your own."

"Now you have to tell me, or I am going back to sleep in the tree," I said stubbornly.

"Do you even know the way back?" he asked me.

"No," I answered and stopped moving. Talking with him helped me to stop thinking about myself as useless, and if he had any problem I could help him with, I needed to do it.

He also stopped and looked over his shoulder.

"How about your sickness? Did it ever come back? Do you ever feel like you're relapsing? " Serge asked, jumping to a completely different theme. The 'sickness' was actually the lack of trust to everyone and everything, even when I saw it with my own eyes and ears. I glared at him for bringing it up; I only had that 'sickness' when I was really young, before I had evolved, and using such old thing just to avoid my question was a low blow to me.

"Okay, I will tell you, but don't stop. We are near my den," he said and, only hesitating slightly, I continued to follow him. Just a few steps more and we were in the entrance to Serge's den.

Just as always, it was absolutely dark here, even during the day I couldn't see a thing in here so I never really learned how his den looked like. Serge guided me to the place where I could lie down. Then he walked away from me, and judging from the way his rings dimmed, he decided to lay down too.

"I think I will start without any long speech and just explain how the dark types work," said Serge after a moment of silence.

"Go on."

"I avoided others umbreons today because we were walking in the time of hunting," Serge said. "Today we have a very small moon, probably tomorrow it won't be even visible, for umbreons the moon works reassuringly. If it's bigger in the sky, then umbreons are calmer; today's hunting will be very bloody."

"Wait, so it means that just a few moments after sunset our clearing and forest is full of umbreons with a thirst for blood?" I asked a little shocked.

Should there be a warning if it happens every day?

"Zar, you took my words wrong. We do not change into some brainless monsters in the night. Today when I was with you I was avoiding the other umbreon not because I was afraid that someone would bite off your tail, but because I didn't want to create a situation where some umbreon would need to resist his dark desire," he explained. "We do not feel comfortable with it and we don't like when someone sees in us our darkness. It's just like two sides fighting with each other inside, the part of the eeveelution which loves to live in a group and part of our pure dark typing, the part of a lonely hunter whose life hasn't any matter and who likes to hurt others, pack or not."

"But, you are umbreon too, and you seem to be... uh, well, just 'normal' right now," I pointed out; it wasn't the first time when Serge had kind of depression and just needed to talk. Two times in one moon circle was standard. He was never very fearful, but his fears sometimes just came to him. "And you described it as if it was really hard to resist."

"I take it as a compliment," the umbreon said and chuckled. "Is it hard to resist? Sometimes yes, it depends on how you are doing in your first days after evolution. If you allow these desires control you, they will take control quite often and an umbreon won't be a true eon anymore, just another lonely dark-typed killer. Teaching how to resist is a part of umbreon training, no one wants to become a killer, and no one wants to raise a killer," he added, pausing.

"Yet, you are allowing this second part to take control and satisfy these desires," I said.

"That's true, but I or anyone else won't be doing it brainlessly. You should be glad that we do it; thanks to it you can sleep peacefully."

"Stop pausing after saying something mysterious, it's annoying and absolutely obvious that I will ask for more detail! You are doing it just like every mother who tells her young eevees a story about 'Nameless'," I demanded a little irritated.

"You mean that story about the espeon with unnaturally coloured eyes who fell in love with... ahh I don't remember...

"In my mother's version he was a flareon, and he fell in love with another fire type," I said.

"I guess everyone has its own version, I also heard versions with umbreon, glaceon but never with sylveon," wondered Serge. "I don't remember what the story was."

"It always started with "When the shadow of the mountain was light up by thunder..." but in short. They loved each other but couldn't stay together, someone sacrificed and this was the end," I added, but just like Serge, I didn't remember that story very well. "But weren't we trying to talk about something different? No more distractions."

"Okay, so at night there are ghost pokemon that come out, and they appear somewhere close to the mountains. They are probably the reason why so many eevees evolve in umbreon." I could hear some anger in Serge's voice, probably because of my demand.

"I never heard about it." I tinged my voice in some of the positive energy, this talk became creepy and I could feel that Serge is just preparing me for something what he really wants to say.

"No one hears about it, it's just a thing you learn when you join umbreons society." I saw that he was now looking straight at me, his yellow eyes sharp. If I saw those eyes somewhere in the forest during the night, I would be afraid for my own life.

"Is that why you went to find me today? Because of ghost pokemon?" I asked trying to push this conversation forward again. Right now, it was just an explanation, and I couldn't grasp what was bothering him so much, what he was saying about these things didn't look like it worried him; he even seemed happy that he could share it with me, until that sudden stare.

"Ghosts aren't our usual prey, we chase them for fun. The problem is… I didn't manage to resist my desire as I should have, just that one time," he said and his voice seemed to catch, growing really sad and quiet. "It was typical hunting; we hunt other pokemon and they lose their life, but we kill them fast, but I didn't do it that time. I made them feel the pain for a long time, not only physical injuries but also mental. I couldn't stop myself and made her look, and, and... ."

"I get it," I cut him off, seeing how much pain it caused him to talk about it, but I didn't understand what he was talking about. Who was she? Did someone die? Did Serge do something wrong?

"You don't," said the umbreon sadly, and I lost sight of his rings. Only after a few minutes I noticed that they were still there but not shining as much as usually.

"Okay I don't, but I can't. I have never been in real danger, never had a real fight and I've never seen death, maybe only on training hunts but that doesn't matter; it's just like with the world around us and the world of humans behind mountains. I can't say that I understand your world because I live in my own but I can see that you can't talk about it," I said as calmly as I could, and even decided to exhale a little of this scent that was putting everyone to sleep but only a little so he wouldn't be snoring in a moment. Blue rings in the darkness shone a little more but still were weakly visible. I heard a sigh.

"So, what would you say I should do? I didn't want to do it but at the same time, I couldn't stop doing it. If this urge to hurt others is stronger than my rational thought, what if next time on my late night path will be a lost eon or someone who I know like you or Cera or even Lissandre?" Serge said darkly, his voice about to break.

What would I do in his place? I don't know. I couldn't grasp the situation but I also knew I wanted to help my friend.

"Maybe you could try to move on?" I said, I could feel in my leaves that the air was getting wetter and using my nose I could tell that it was Serge's sweat, this only proved to me that it really bothered him.

"How I can move on when I still have this scene in my mind! Even Cera won't be able to wipe it away because I am a fucking darkling and she can't use psychic on me! It doesn't work!" he was going on desperately, talking louder and louder, panicking-

And then I tensed, exhaling as much of my calming scent as I could. It seemed to work because Serge stopped talking and took a few deep breaths. He kept breathing but I started to feel weak; I usually took energy from the sun and water to create this effect, now I needed to use my own vitality. But there was something more what was making me feel... just bad.

"It always amazed me how great it smells,"Serge finally spoke and his rings returned to the normal glow allowing me to see where he was once again. It appeared that he wasn't lying anymore and was standing somewhere close to the wall since I could clearly see a well-lighted stone wall. "Thank you. Not only for that healing ability but I really needed to throw all of this out of my head. Thank you for listening and trying to understand but... why have your leaves become yellow?"

"I think that I need some air," I said, and stood up to walk outside, but then I had a blackout. Everything was silent, I couldn't hear anything, just an escalating sound of screeching in my ears. I tried to look around but my head was so heavy that I couldn't lift it. I wasn't even sure if I had my eyes open or closed, it was just dark.

* * *

Breathe.

Commanded a voice, it was a female, familiar voice but I couldn't connect it to anything that I knew. I followed the comment and breathed, one breath, second breath third, and then I vomited.

It was still the night, I was lying on my back and as I opened my eyes

I could see the moon above me, it was very thin. I guessed that it is still the same night. I rolled to my belly for a more comfortable position but then in my vision jumped a lilac creature. I couldn't focus my eyes on this creature, I felt dizzy and everything was rolling in my sight and losing focus. The creature put a paw to my cheek and looked straight in my eyes.

"What have you eaten today?" it asked. What have I eaten today? Or maybe it was yesterday? Was today still today or tomorrow was already today?

"Sun I guess," I spoke surprising myself by the sound which I exhaled, it was so weak, so quiet. Then I wanted to close my eyes but I got a powerful slap in my face just when I tried to.

"Stay awake," spoke pink blob before me and then turned to something on it right. "He is poisoned, was he eating anything?"

"No, or at least not when he was with me, I thought that he lives now only on the solar power," answered harshly something that seemed to be slightly blue but no matters how many times I blinked but my vision still wasn't clear, just like my thoughts. I tried to stand up but I fell to the side.

"Don't move just lay, it all right, it will pass, just lay down and stay awake," spoke sweet voice somewhere close to my ear.

"Will he be really okay?" asked again this harsh voice from somewhere behind. "With these brown leaves, he looks as if he had forty seasons more life than he had."

"He is a part plant, every illness will be very visible on his leaves but using my psychic I can say that this poison isn't life dangerous. It just confuses him. But it was good that you came to me fast, if I couldn't wake him then this might have been much worse." spoke a female voice again and I started to feel a headache. I wanted to put my paw on my forehead but it ended up on my nose. How could I confuse my forehead with my nose? I made another attempt to do it but now I didn't even know where my paw landed; the third time something grabbed it and kept it.

"If he didn't eat anything then what could poison him? Some plant with needles or some thorns? I don't even know if there as poisonous plants anywhere here," said a female creature which was keeping my paw in 'something'. I managed to lift my head enough to look at my paw and noticed that it is covered in some pink slightly glowing thing. I pulled myself a little closer to it and licked. The taste was well known to me.

"Cera?" I asked in the darkness and in my view appeared once again this lilac blob. "I don't see."

"Just wait it will pass soon. You really scared me with all of this," Cera said and I rolled again to stand up. "Don't stand up, just wait and don't panic."

It was as if she was reading my mind since I was just about to panic. I felt blind, I felt all numb and I had a headache.

"It's already better," the harsh voice said and I identified it as Serge.

"Once again I will ask, were you eating anything today?" asked worried Cera.

"No I wasn't, I just had a long rest in the sun," I answered, my vision was already getting better, I could see the espeon before me, not just a blob, Serge was still invisible for me but even normally he was hard to notice during the night.

"So, have you any ideas what could poison you? It needed to be very strong, just imagine what it could do to eevee, maybe even kill it," Cera pleaded.

"I don't know, I start to feel something in Serge's den but I didn't eat anything," I said thinking about the day but thinking still wasn't easy because of a headache.

"Maybe... it was my sweat, umbreon's sweat is poisonous, not really strong but can affect some senses," proposed Serge unsure.

"You won't tell me that he drunk your sweat, will you?" asked Cera glancing at the umbreon.

"No, of course not, but he could smell it," Serge quickly defended himself.

"It's too weak to put an eeveelution unconscious," countered Cera. " But maybe... maybe leafeons are just very weak to poison?"

"I don't know, I am not a specialist of leafeon," I said getting their stares. "What?" I asked, as their eyes made me feel uncomfortable.

"I need to think about it, just promise me to avoid any possible poisons," said Cera, getting ready to walk away but waiting until I promise.

"I promise, but I really wish I could go to sleep now," I said tiredly, just at the edge of the sleep.

"Okay I will take you with me then, it will be even safer that way," said Cera, and I lost contact with the ground, floating forward after the espeon. Levitating above the ground was very comfortable, not using my muscles to walk. So comfortable that I couldn't resist the urge to the sleep any longer.


	4. Ch4 'Love all around

Just as I woke up, even before I opened my eyes, I felt that this day would be one of these days where I would get up only to wait until I could sleep again. I felt so lazy that I wanted to do absolutely nothing; however, I couldn't force myself to sleep any longer. The sun's rays were glaring at my eyelids and bothering me even while they were shut tight, but that wasn't enough to make me move, but the water that suddenly started dripping on me did. I opened my eyes and saw that I was on a grassy field, not far from Cera's den. Who, coincidentally, was also standing next to me using her psychic powers on the water hovering above me, rhythmically dropping small blobs on me as if imitating rain. She wasn't looking at me but concentrating on the floating water.

"Could you stop that?" I asked, slowly getting wet. She tensed but listened to my request, and the entire water bubble fell on me all at once. "Hey! What was that for?"

"Uh, I thought I should water you," she spoke after a bit of hesitation.

"Why?"

"You have brown leaves now, like withered plants, so I had the idea that this might help," Cera answered, but it seemed that she wasn't sure of her idea anymore.

"I am not a plant! I don't even bloom," I said irritated. Even if there was sense to her actions, I didn't want to be treated like a plant. It was good that she didn't decide to bury me underground only with my leaves above the ground, I guess. _Something to be thankful for there._

I looked back to see my leaves. They were really sickly, maybe not brown like Cera said but yellow, or at least this side, which used to be green. Of course, the bottom was white as always. I felt that they weren't absorbing the sun as well as they used to.

"What happens to the typical plant's leaves when they are yellow?" I stood up and questioned Cera; my weakness from yesterday gone, aside of almost not working leaves.

"Wait wait wait, you are a plant- " I looked at her angrily, "-I mean part-plant, and you don't know what leaves are doing when they turn brown?"

 _They're yellow!_

"They fall off the branch, I know. I was asking what else they do. I doubt that I will suddenly lose my ears and tail," I said sarcastically. "Did you really think that I didn't know a thing like that? I used to speak with the plants, so I learned a few things about them."

"You speak with plants?!" she cried out in shock "You really are crazy!"

"No no, It's not like that, like with you and me. I just don't know what else to call it, it's like learning something from nothing. Like I'll get information that some flower will soon bloom and turn red or some tree will lose it's pinecones." I quickly explained to the surprised espeon, realising that it had to have sounded really silly.

"Okay, but if I ever find you talking to bushes, trees or anything leafy, I will invade your mind and put you back to normal!" she warned me, but calmed herself. "But back to your leaves, I think that they will just turn green with time. Do you feel any different when they are yellow?"

"I can't absorb the sun's rays as easily, as usual, is all," I answered, checking if I could move them normally, which I could. I noticed that from a den a fair distance from us walked out a dark, blue-ringed creature.

"I see that you woke up," greeted Serge as he approached us, speaking in his typical harsh tone which was more fitting for threats and insults than mornings greetings.

"And I see that someone is awake when he should be sleep," I replied, trying to imitate him but I wasn't even close to his tone.

"The more I sleep, the more I snore," he said and sat down on the grass. "And not every umbreon is nocturnal."

"Uh, really?" asked Cera as she looked at Serge with curiosity.

"No, only the newbies who don't know how to change their habits yet," Serge denied and smiled, but that wasn't enough to convince me that he was fine during the day. I saw his squinted and tired eyes, they were slightly red, not as much as normal umbreons but also not his usual bright yellow.

"You won't deceive me, Serge, I can see that you are unhappy during the day," I said calmly; I didn't want to see him like that.

"Fine, you caught an umbreon on a lie. Yes, I hate mornings; it's so fucking bright everywhere. I felt as if the sun was trying to burn my eyes; and without the darkness, I feel so... exposed," admitted said dark-type, giving up on trying to not show his dissatisfaction.

"Heh, is our scary umbreon so shy that he can't stand others seeing him?" taunted Cera as she giggled, but Serge didn't give her any attention, focusing on me.

"I only wanted to check on you, even if Cera says otherwise. It was my position and me that affected you. I can recognise my own abilities, y'know. Sorry about it, how you feel now?"

"I've had better days, but I am fine now, I'll just be different colours for a while," I replied and got a nod from him. "Go to sleep now, Serge."

"I will," he said, standing up and walking back to his den.

"He had another guilt trip?" asked Cera when the blue-ringed umbreon was too far to hear us, even with his much better than any other eeveelution's ears.

"Yep," I affirmed. "Something happened on the hunt, as always. And as always, I don't really understand what it was."

"Umbreons are one giant army of sadness, just wait until some of them turn crazy," stated Cera, surprising me with how she thought about our friend.

"Don't think like that; it is just part of their type. Instead of blaming them for it, we should help them to control it," I advised, looking in Cera's almost blue eyes. "Serge just needs to talk with someone to help him feel better, I bet that there are umbreons around here that have a lot of trouble with cheering up."

"I never feel good when there is an umbreon nearby, the way I sense them with my psychic power gives me a headache. As if I had something heavy on my back," said Cera, and I heard some regret in her voice that she felt like that around our friend, that she was uncomfortable around him. "Maybe you are right."

"Opinions are like asses; everyone has their own," I repeated what Serge said me. Cera's ears tensed, and she looked at me curiously.

"Who said that?" she asked.

"Serge," I answered and actually felt lucky that I didn't have to say that this was mine.

"Yes, that fits him, but you, not so much. Don't learn too much from him, okay?" She warned me and made her way to her den. "Meet me before sunset at the river okay? I have a nice place to show you."

"Sure, I'll be looking forward it," I answered as she gracefully walked out of my view. I was still sitting when it came to me, one, highly important fact which just happened. Did I really just ask her for a date? Or rather she asked me. And I agreed, well that was good, since I wasn't aware of what she meant and I couldn't say something stupid if I didn't know that she was asking me out.

I stood up and with a smile on my face, I started aimlessly wandering through the pack area. Some of the eeveelutions I passed by were cocking their heads, seeing me stupidly smiling to myself, but I couldn't help it, I was just _happy_.

My happy trance disturbed some other jolteon who instead of just staring, crossed my way.

"Hi, Czar was it? I wanted to thank you for your help yesterday and... weren't you greener?" blabbed fastly female jolteon.

 _What was her name? She missed mine but it would be nice if I would remember hers._

"Hi, Nevia what you are doing here?" I greeted her making a step back as he walked a little too close to me.

"Well, it's Navia, but anyways I live here! See it's my den right there," she pointed at the nearby dark entrance. "I just wanted to thank you; you really helped me yesterday Czar and I haven't had any occasion to do it before now!"

"Zar," I felt that I could correct her if she corrected me. It was a real surprise to me where her den was, it was almost the centre point of the clearing where our pack was living, how did a one-day old jolteon earn one of the most important places for den? "How did you get this place? It's almost in the centre, and you just evolved yesterday!"

That would mean that I was speaking with the second or maybe third most powerful pokemon here, only Sogot could be more powerful.

"It is my parent's den, as you pointed out, I just evolved so I haven't moved out yet," she said unnaturally fast for everyone but jolteons. More experienced electric types weren't even 'wasting' time for making a sound, instead communicating by sending small discharges. She calmed me a little though, I always felt some pressure when I was talking with other eeveelutions, maybe not stronger than me since it was really hard for me to find someone weaker than me, but with someone who had a 'position' in the pack. Like Cera, I never could force myself to treat her normally, I was always watching my words and behaviour when I was close to her. I just couldn't be fully comfortable with pokemon like them.

"What do you think about going somewhere together in the evening? I can take you to a nice place in return for your help," Navia proposed happily. And I would almost agree but I stopped at just the last moment.

I was already busy, I couldn't miss my meeting with Cera. Not because Navia wasn't attractive, I never truly lied that I prefer jolteons, with their spiked fur, yellow colour and energy... but I knew Cera much longer and even a blind pokemon would see that the espeon was trying something. The problem was that; if I said no to Navia, she might feel bad, and it was a male who was supposed to ask for a date. If female asked first and the male declined, she may think that there was something wrong with her and this could make her miserable. But if I said yes, I couldn't go with Cera and the situation would repeat, maybe she wouldn't even look at me again because I just stood her up. How did this even happen? I am one of the weaker males in the pack and I have to choose between two females! It was against every rule!

Every possible choice was bad, I doubted that any of the 'maybe another day' or 'I am busy today' lines would work, I knew that the pokemon I was talking to wasn't stupid enough to believe such cliché words. Not only because Navia's parents were really powerful and certainly taught their daughter how to be smart, but just the way of her facial expressions, the set of her ears and look of her dark violet eyes. I would also judge her from the movement of her tail but jolteon's tails seemed to vanish. Really, where did a jolteon's tail went? Is it hidden somewhere under their spikes, or did it just disappear? How did she even keep her balance without it? I couldn't understand it since my own was long and broad, allowing me even to stand on only my two back legs for a few seconds.

But back to my problem, I didn't want to hurt Navia in any possible way but at the same time, I didn't want to say anything that could ruin my meeting with Cera. But on the other paw, maybe she wouldn't mean a date but just 'thanks' and saying that I already had a meeting with Cera wouldn't be a bad idea. I noticed lately that Cera wanted me in her environment more, but Navia was just a jolteon I met and I didn't know anything about her. Yet, she was inconceivably attractive. I was so lucky that jolteons aren't psychic and can't read all these thoughts. But what if Cera looked in my mind and found out everything that I was thinking? Nah I was worrying myself too much, she never did that.

"Sooo? Would you go with me?" Navia repeated the question and I panicked, what I was supposed to answer? Yes? NO! Maybe? Maybe I should ask Serge? He is good in internal fights with desires, but he is not HERE! Why can't that blue ass be where I need him?! He just shines his rings randomly in the night, say his problems and disappears until he would need something again!

"ehawaeh," I finally said. It wasn't the brightest thing I've ever said, I would even say that after such a long train of thoughts I expected more from myself than some random sounds. If I remembered how Cera said I sound it, I needed to sound more like 'eofealon' anyways, which made me feel even more stupid, not to mention the idiotic smile I had on my face since I was invited on the date by Cera. Maybe Navia lost already any interest into inviting me anywhere? But even if I was going through a real marathon in my thoughts, it didn't even pass a second as Navia asked me to go with her 'somewhere'. I also noticed how similar her invitation was to Cera's. To go to some interesting place, not mentioning a fact that I knew every interesting place around since I was a leafeon. I noticed both of them had a habit of saying ' I want to spend a few moments with you'.

But maybe she didn't want it at all and it was only my insane imagination telling me 'you have a chance, boy'. Maybe they really did just want to take me to some place because they thought that I never saw anything interesting in my life or that I was some bored plant pokemon and I would enjoy a place filled with other plants. It always made me angry when someone thought about me as some kind of plant. Plants were incredibly stupid and limited. Grow and absorb was all that they ever thought of, occasionally other things appeared like 'grow new leaves' or 'make a cone'. But what did that have in common with me? Was I growing? Creating new leaves, cones, fruits, anything? No! I was an eeveelution just like any other, not popular since I was the only leafeon, but always one of them. But there was still a jolteon before me who still waited another second for the answer and, according to how this type usually worked, she could be already irritated. But her facial expression showed no irritation, but rather a curiosity. She had raised ears.

 _Is she posing or does she always look so good?_

But no matter how good she did look, Cera was what was making me, well, simply said, excited more. Even if an eventual relationship with the newly evolved jolteon had more sense since there was no traditional 'strong for strong, weak for weak' problems, I still wanted to go for the hardest one. I didn't want how to name it, maybe a green desire? Since umbreons had their own dark desire, then I had my green desire, my desire to try my connection with Cera and who knows, maybe build something with sense.

"I already have plans to meet with someone tonight," I said to the jolteon before me and I immediately noticed what I was afraid of. She didn't move at all but she looked as if she shrunk, she didn't look nearly as confident as she had before. Was she already feeling hurt or rejected? Maybe it wasn't just 'showing some places', and she really meant what I didn't want to her to mean. But I couldn't agree to it no matter how bad I would feel and now knowing how she felt I wouldn't enjoy any moment with Cera because I would remember what it had cost for me. What was wrong with this day? I was a walking failure, yet I had choices like this. Maybe it was because I felt like a failure and wanted to help others who felt the same?

"Okay I understand," Navia said putting her invitation aside. "Well, at least, I can wish you a nice evening then."

"Thanks," I said and walked away from her. Her wishes completely didn't make me feel positive about my evening meeting, but what I could do?! Every choice would be bad.

I didn't even move far from the spot where I was speaking with Navia when another familiar voice disturbed my thoughts.

"Hey, do you know Navia?" asked a familiar looking vaporeon who I really couldn't name right now. "I saw you two talking. Could you... help me a little? Since I saw her yesterday at the river, I can't stop thinking about her, could you, maybe, introduce?"

 _This was already too much for one day._

But maybe I should help him, maybe Navia still has a chance to have an enjoyable evening.

"Okay, I can help. She still should be nearby," I said making a turn but that vaporeon who couldn't swim didn't follow me. "Are you coming?"

"What? No, we can't just go to her!" he said and he sounded as if he was scared. Or nervous maybe?

"Why not? She was sparking yesterday but today she seemed to be safe," I was confused by his behaviour, seeing his flat ears... fins? He really looked as if he was scared. I guessed that because of type disadvantage.

"Sparks? No, it is not that, I got hit yesterday in the river, but no one fished me but... is she, ehm, is she aware that I even exist?" he asked sheepishly.

"I don't quite get what you mean," I informed him, turning to him once again. "You want me to introduce you two or not?"

"Yes, I want to, but could we do it in a different way?" he said starting speaking so quiet that I needed to move closer to still hear him.

"Should I bring her here?" I tried to guess what he wanted from me, and I started to feel that it won't be anything quick. "Whatever you want, I am helping you only until this evening, I am busy later."

"I want you to make her aware of me?" he said, but I still didn't get what he meant.

"So, I have to just say that there is some vaporeon, who doesn't swim. Is it what you want?" I tried to guess one more time. To my greater confusion, I noticed irritation on the water-type's face.

"It would be better if you could say that my name is Struga,"-Oh. so that was his name-" and don't mention that I can't swim. I-I will deal with that by myself."

"Will you learn how to swim?" If he wanted to deal with it he should work hard to learn swimming in just one day.

"No, I will just not bring it up," he contradicted. I didn't like this idea, and I still thought that just introducing them to each other would be a much easier and better way, but if Struga wanted his way then I guess I would just follow along.

"Okay, is it anything more what I should know about you, anything that can work to your advantage? Like your origins, family, some abilities or position in the pack?" I wasn't sure if this was really important, Navia didn't seem to be one of those who wanted to mate only with important male sin the pack, but maybe it would work in Struga's advantage later.

"Well, me I haven't done too much yet, but my father is the fourth elder," he said. I was surprised, being an elder was very high and hard to achieve a role in the pack. A number of elders were not always the same, but always there were at last seven of them, one of each type, but not every region had it own individual elder. I was living in the Middle, the eeveelution who ruled the Middle ruled our whole pack. Sogot was the current leader and first elder, but not only of the Middle but also of all flareons in the pack. The Middle was the most important region since it was where almost one hundred eeveelution lived, and the terrain here allowed every type to live here without any bother, maybe exception were glaceons, it was too hot for them here in the season of the sun. All of these regions like Middle, West, East, North and South were Sogot's idea who wanted to have everything in order; typical eeveelutions didn't used to be split into these groups, and of all this region thing was just names. But elder traditions were around much earlier than Sogot or even the leader before him, they had a purpose, to keep a pack from doing anything that could hurt one of the types. Like melting the ice with a flareon's flames in the mountains, it would make vaporeons happy for the extra water, but it would be bad for the glaceons. So there was always seven elders to keep all eight types in... -wait, seven elders but eight types? I had to have missed something.

"Hey, how many elders we currently have?" I asked Struga.

"Eleven? Yes, eleven, why do you ask?" he answered easily. If his father was one of the elders, then Struga probably knew everything, important or not, about our rulers.

"And how many type-elders?" I precise my question.

"Seven, I still don't know how this can help us get Navia's attention," he answered me once again, hitting the ground with his long tail. It was a sign of curiosity connected to worry, if he would only move his tail up and down it would be only curiosity and if he would hit the ground harder, it would be only worry or even fear. Even if I saw signs like these, I probably missed a lot of other ones but I would need to be vaporeon to understand him perfectly. These signs were out of control and everyone was doing it impulsively, the only way to learn them was to ask some other type for 'translation'. I was much better reading umbreons, where I needed to watch their rings shine, and espeons; in psychic types it was important to pay attention to the split ends of their tail and a lot of psychic stuff too, but all I could see was a tail movement. Funny that I didn't know any signs of leafeons, since every time I tried to focus on my instinctual moves I stopped doing them. All I learned was that it was something connected to my leaves fluttering and curling. I guess I needed to wait until I met another leafeon to learn them, or maybe I would just know them as soon as we met?

"There are seven type-elders, but-but there are eight types! Where is the eighth elder?" I asked, believing that his knowledge allowed him to answer me.

He was thinking for a while; he calculated something on his claws and it was something really big since he needed to use his claws from all four paws.

"Eh, I guess you are not a type then," he spoke finally.

"What you mean?"

"Leafeons don't have an elder, so they are not considered as another type," he tried to explain but it was making me even more confused.

"What do you mean? Am I not another type?" I asked.

"Look, I am not a specialist but do you know what you are? All that everyone knows is that some old vaporeon reminded herself about creatures known as leafeon once, but no one knows your weakness, abilities or type. Could we return to Navia please?" he spoke fastly and repeated his move with his tail but this time he hit the ground harder.

"You were there?!" I squealed as I heard him mentioned the night of my evolution.

"My father always brought me everywhere when something was happening in the pack, he expects me to replace him as elder some day so I was there. But please! I have talked enough of the elder's things," he said, and I decided to let it go. Cera for sure would know more and would be more helpful. Plus if I success into helping him to meet Navia I was sure that Struga will help me too.

"Okay, I am going to her and if you still don't want to go with me then wait here," I said, and as I didn't see that he wanted to go with me, I moved alone back to where I was talking with Navia. As I was walking, I started to think how to even start making her aware of Struga's excitement and not make it sound stupid or forced. Also, the fact that our talk didn't end so happily was making it harder.

 _Just do it, Zar, the evening will compensate every effort which you do today. Or I hope it will._

I didn't see Navia in the place where I saw her last time, why I even though that she would be still standing here, she probably had something better to do. But now I had to find her, looking for paw steps wasn't a good idea, there was a lot of eeveelutions steps here and I was completely oblivious to anything connected with tracking. Serge was good at it, just like any other umbreon, but he wouldn't be awake in the middle of the day to help. I wasn't sleeping last night because of him so I thought that I could use some of his help and wake him up for the moment. Tracking someone in the pack would be rather easy for him.

Feeling the calling of my mission, I went to umbreon's den, which wasn't that far away. Living in the centre has a lot of advantages but I thought that fact that everything was so close to each other was the most useful. Not that I had a long road to my former den, it was still one and the same clearing.

When I stood before Serge's den, I met another problem. The room I was in last night was just the first room of his den and it was already was so dark that I didn't see anything. But Serge was sleeping much deeper under ground so nothing could disturb him. I didn't know how deep underground dark-type tunnels were or what their configuration was either. I tried once or twice to reach Serge, but going in there alone never worked out, and I always got lost until said umbreon woke up and found me. Not that his den was so big, I was just so blind in the dark that I just needed to go in one dark room to have problems with finding an exit. Screeching back of my left ear with my left, back leg I decided that I wouldn't go in there. I wasn't sure when Serge would wake up and guide me back. And I just reminded that he was still awake in the morning so I would be late to Cera for sure.

Yelling also wouldn't work, I could yell straight in the ear of that umbreon and he would still be asleep. It made me wonder how his hearing worked since he heard much more than I did, but I never missed someone screaming to my ear. I shook my head in discomfort. I even felt a pain in my ears just thinking about that.

I looked around with the hope that I would see any willing to help umbreon but I didn't see any. I was on my own.

 _Where could a jolteon go?_

Not to the river, that for sure. In the centre, I also didn't see her. Maybe she visited some nearby region? It wasn't that far away, I could check two of them before the evening, but to which one I should go? Maybe north and east? It was a more usual place for jolteons than the opposite direction. It was still possible that she went somewhere further since there is more than just middle and four regions around it.

There were a few well-known locations in each region. The Flame's Yards, far at the south where the desert had it beginnings, but because of the temperature there, it was a place only for flareons. Currently, ten maybe eleven flareons lived around. The same with Thunder Crest, farther on the north, populated by jolteons. Thunder Crest actually had no dens around or few jolteons who would live there for long, as it wasn't in their nature to stay in one place for too long. But jolteons from time to time were going there to touch these weird black stones which were pending from the ground. These stones had electrical energy inside, and when there was a storm in the sky, some lighting would always hit these stones, attracted to their energy. All that I knew about it was that I should never ever touch these stones. But jolteons were doing it very willingly and when some of them touched them, they became extremely hyper and "charged", and usually irritating. I did have to admit that some of their lighting bolts sporadically sent into the sky were really impressive, though.

The furthest place where evolutions lived was far in the mountains which isolated us from the world which Serge called the Human's World. On the White Slope, it's part of the mountain where there is always snow, and there in the frozen land lived glaceons. They waited for winter, so they could come back to the main regions and bring their stories with them. White Slope was the only part of the pack which is connected to the rest of world, a place where Glaceons would meeting other species of pokemon and later, in the winter when all other eons were hidden in the warm dens while glaceons took their watch of the pack, they would tell us what weird things they saw. My friend and Serge's mate, Lissandre, she was usually the one who told us what she saw. She evolved one winter later than Serge and just as she returned from her first session of the sun which she spent on White Slope, she was telling how she saw creature walking just on two legs, almost without ears and paws able to grab things. I was still an eevee then, quite young, so I would lie if I said that I wasn't scared as fuck. But wait, if I try to imagine this, then, well, I still am scared. Two-legged monsters, it almost like levitating.

The mountains were two days of walking from the middle, but Glaceons, when it was cold and snowing, could make it in one day. I didn't know how, but they just could.

I caught myself staring at some random tree as I was lost in my thoughts. I also noticed a few eeveelutions and maybe two eevees staring at me weirdly, or maybe was it curiosity? Maybe part-plant eeveelutions which looked at trees seemed to be interesting to others?

Not wanting to be observed, I walked out of their view going to the south region as I hoped that I would find Navia there. In order to get there, I needed to pass the river but as I approached it I saw an espeon at the river bank. The espeon was old, his poor fur wasn't able to cover wrinkles on his backsides and head. He was as slim as a rake, I would almost say that he looked as if he should have died a few seasons ago and he was now only waiting for the end. But maybe with his psychic powers, he would be able to help me in my search.

After a bit of hesitation, I approached him.

"Hello, can I ask you for something?" I said acting friendly and kindly. "If I didn't disturb you obviously."

The espeon jerked and turn his head to me; his short fur on his head had already lost it lavender colour and just as if was cleared by rain, was mostly white.

"Ask then, maybe old Vilastraadat will be helpful for someone today," the espeon answered and it took me a moment to understand that he said about himself in the third person.

 _That name, though._

Maybe his psychic connection and hearing others mind harmed his own. If that could be true, he couldn't help me to find Navia but I decided to ask anyway. I hope that Struga that in someday you return all this favour which I am doing for him.

"I am looking for a jolteon, she evolved yesterday, she has a little faded yellow colour of her fur and blue eyes. Have you seen her... physically or mentally?" I asked waving a paw in the air trying to show how Navia looked.

"Are you looking for your lover?" he asked and chortled. "I see, your heart is calling for two, are you sure of your choice young eon?"

"What? No, I am not looking for Navia because I chose her!" I denied.

"Males don't remember the colour of female's eyes but the size of her butt until he feels something more than just friendship. But alright then, why you are looking for her? You are already are involved in this world's scheme so why you won't follow the path before you? Will you make a few steps ahead just to turn back and try another path?"

"Pardon? World's scheme? Paths? I am just looking for a friend," I tried to specify what I want but it seemed that Vilastraadat wasn't listening to me at all.

"Everyone of us is involved in repetitive schemes, all that change is just a 'skin'. What matters? The life of an individual? What is a matter of your life? You were brought to this world by your parents to do exactly the same thing they were doing, to feel thirst, hunger and pain, to have desires and unbelievable wishes. To repeat mistakes of earlier generations and to bring new generations who will do exactly the same. Do you want to break the scheme? You can't, no one can. All that you can do is a change of 'skin', the way how things look like, but in a core, it still is the same thing. Look at our pack today, we have regions, elders, a working society. What was different in the past? I will say to you. Nothing. All of that which was changed was only a 'skin'. Leaders can change but the authority would stay the same, the pack can change but it is still for the same purpose, to survive. All of this is just a repetitive scheme. But is it the wrong thing? No. You or I won't notice it, in a thousand or more years a 'skin' can change to something really important. Skin is the world around us and the world which we are changing. By building a den, by digging a hole or just by leaving a shit somewhere in the forest. You will realise it when your life fades away and see how weak the things you left behind are."

"...Ok," was all that I managed to say. I didn't know what he was talking about at all, but he was just an old psychic type, it could be everything in his head. "I think I will be going then," I said and used a shallow area to get through the river. When I was in the middle of the river, I heard espeon again.

"Your will is your greatest strength and your only chain; I wish you luck, you need this. Don't disappoint me. It would be very sad."

Fuck him, the South region was just a few steps from here, this espeon was really crazy. But it motivated me to move faster. When I stood at the opposite bank, I felt the espeon's eyes on my back but when I looked back, he just smiled at me and I quickly looked away from him.

"Crazy espeon," I mumbled and went into the forest. Dens in the south region weren't like in the middle, grouped in one clearing.

There were just randomly placed between trees; it took me a while when I saw the first eeveelution here. It was a female sylveon, I asked her for the way to the centre of this place and she happily answered me. After another few steps, I was in the crowd of eeveelutions. Not as crowded as in the Middle but still some. Everyone here was moving fast, almost in a run. Parents were carrying young eevees in their muzzles, older eevees wouldn't allow anyone to carry them so they were moving through the crowd screaming insults when someone stepped or almost stepped on them, and I was jostled sporadically.

"Hey, what is happening here?!" I asked loudly, not addressing my question to anyone certain in the crowd of chaos.

"Don't you know anything? The storm is coming and this one is huge, Vilastraadat, the elder of all espeons just said it telepathically to everyone in this morning, did you forget?" some random flareon answered me but at the same time, a powerful wind like a wall of air hit me from the side taking away every leaf and dust from the ground. I needed to make a wider stance to keep balance, but luckily my own leaves stayed in place. The flareon wasn't waiting for my response and ran, probably to his den.

 _Did I really forget about the storm? Wait, I didn't get any message!_

In the wave of panic, I kept stepping from paw to paw, not sure what I should do. Then I reminded myself that there was this old espeon on the river bank and he wouldn't manage to get to any den before the storm would arrive. I turned to where I came from and joined everyone around in this chaotic dance. I started running.

Going opposite the earlier direction, I could see a coal-black sky coming out, large and black like a night without stars, with clouds covering most of the sky. Running through the forest full of roots and low branches wasn't an easy task, but to my own surprise, I didn't even stumble in this thicket. It became very dark when I was running in the storm direction and I felt shivers when first thunders came to my ears. There were so many of them, I couldn't even recognise when it was the end of one and the start of another, it was just one loud thunder. When I came to the river, it was already raining and it was too dark to see the opposite bank or it may have been just my blindness in the dark. Without a second thought, I jumped into the river, wanting to be at least in the middle before apogee.

But instead of hitting algae at the bottom of the river I sank completely in the river.

I immediately choked on a mouthful of water and the river's flow pushed took me with it. I was trying to swim instinctively but it was almost impossible in swelling water.

For a moment, I could take a breath, sharp and short. It was raining so heavily that there wasn't much difference if I was underwater or above. I kept trying to swim but I was only swirling with all these waves around. It wasn't long before my limbs become tired and pliable to the waves. My moves became weaker and slower until I almost stopped moving entirely. I needed to fight, but I was too weak, I was trying to force myself to the bigger effort but I couldn't fight a river. I couldn't even keep myself above the water, I had to fight, I need to live, _**I want to survive!**_


	5. Ch5 'Wilderness and Walking Disaster'

The light of the morning sun woke me up, and I slowly lifted my eyelids just to see clear blue sky above me. Purring and closing again my eyes I rolled to another flank for a more comfortable position on the soft… whatever I was lying on. It had a smell of grass and was nice in touch.

The sun was pleasantly warming my leaves; I wanted to yawn but just as I opened my mouth I started to cough spasmodically, spewing a lot of the water until finally taking one deep breath. I kept lying in a small puddle of water which I created, just breathing heavy.

Slowly I started to remember the events of… yesterday? Maybe it was the same day? I had no feeling of time and was I really lying here with a throat full of water? I caught myself using only my leaves to breathe unconsciously, but I didn't know I could depend on them that much.

I opened my eyes again, stood up and looked around. The thing on which I was standing was looking just like one giant leaf, it was really huge, maybe even three times bigger than my den's insides. The oblong leaf was dark green and had large spikes on its curved sides. It was also vibrating slightly.

I walked to the edge of the leaf and looked down. I wasn't very high above the ground, but the leaf was growing straight in the middle of the river. No, it was a delta, a place where the river paths meet to create a larger river. I walked to the other side of the leaf; here I was much closer to the ground so I decided to jump. But my legs were still weak, so I landed hard on my face and stomach. I ended up laying there for a while waiting for the sudden pain to fade away.

Sitting up slowly, I stared at the giant leaf. I had never seen a plant like it before, I was very lucky the thing just happened to be growing in the middle of the river and caught me. The leaf started to become darker just as I was looking at it. Soon it changed, with wide holes in its blade, and the whole plant began to look ill. Suddenly and without any warning, it collapsed and disappeared in the water.

"Weird plant," I summarised, quietly mumbling the words under my breath. I noticed that the top of my own leaves had returned to their typical bright green colour. What I didn't notice earlier was a familiar landscape or at least a familiar horizon covered by white mountains. The environment and smells were completely new to me. I tried to not panic yet, though. I was going with the river flow, so all that I needed to do was to go in the opposite direction and I would be in a home in no time!

But I missed my meeting with Cera! Would she yell? Bite? Telepathically shout at me? Or telepathically bite? Maybe everything at once? Or would I be completely ignored? I didn't know what was worse. Maybe I shouldn't go back too fast so she would worry and wouldn't be angry?

There was a delta before me and I didn't know which river was 'my' side of the river.

"Arrrg, why does there need to be two rivers?!" it irritated me even more. Another fact that irritated me was that my choice didn't even depend on me, since I was on the left bank of the river and didn't know if these waters had a shallow area to get to another bank. Being angry, I continued my walk.

The beach here was quite long and broad, almost like the lagoon in my home. The forest seemed to be very thick and scruffy; they weren't so comfortable to walk like narrow patches in the forest of my pack. I noticed some strange burned marks on some trees. It looked just as if this was a patch of some flareon who hiccoughed.

As I walked farther, more marks become obvious. Soon I started to pass trees burned to the ground. Even further, there were completely empty fields covered only in the dust of burned plants. This sight made me feel uncomfortable, sad and a bit alarmed.

"Calm down Zar, it's just a leafeon thing," I said it to myself, but I wished that there was someone else here who could have said it to me. Speaking to myself was also a bad sign, but come on, I wasn't alone even a day yet! I'm not that crazy. Serge would sometimes stay alone for weeks and was still pretty normal. Or at least, I think he is…

My ears perked up as I heard a sound coming from my left. I rapidly looked around to find a place to hide but the environment was burned up and close to barren. The river was the only place I could hide in. I jumped into the water but not too far from the bank. I could stand at the bottom and have my head above the water. Forcing my ears to lay flat against my head and trying to be as invisible as possible with my eyes and nose above the water, I kept a lookout. Having my ears flattened I couldn't hear properly but I saw five creatures coming over just like me earlier, alongside the river bank. All of them were keeping a distance from the water as if they were afraid that something would jump out at one of them.

None of them was eeveelutions. Was it possible that other species could cross the mountain? Or… or maybe it was me who crossed the mountain? It would make more sense since I don't remember any delta of rivers near the pack. Where was I then? And more importantly, how do I return home?

The five unusual pokemon were already much closer to me; I surprised myself with how far away I was able to hear them. Maybe they were able to hear me too?

Three of them were quadruped and one was enormous in size, an orange canine creature covered in black stripes. Even if he was much bigger than a flareon he seemed to me to be similar. It was probably because of the large bushy tail and collar of thick fur going around his neck.

Walking next to him were two pokemon similar in size and build, but they were more feline, with a much larger collar of fur, I think I should call it an orange and red mane.

The other two were freaks. It walked on two short, compared to the rest of his body, legs. It has round body in red and orange colouring and head with a short beak. His forehead looked like a mooned ass or maybe it was a real ass? Ahh, what am I thinking? A creature can't have a butt on its head; how would that work?

I never met species other than eons before, so it was the first time I'd seen a thing like that, especially these two-legged monsters, which were hauntingly terrifying. From their colouration, I guessed that they were all fire types. Liss would never talk about fire-types near the mountains, more about how the glaceons were trying to take new territory, or big-headed absols, or pillaging the swinub's food or sometimes horrifying groups of sneasel. There was a lot pokemon living in the mountains or trying to cross them. The pack always managed to defend its grounds, there were no species which could defeat the group of pokemon able to use seven different elements. I never needed to fight, as long as I live, I didn't have a chance to really fight for my life. I usually felt pride that I was part of the pack but if I think about it, other species do not really need to like me. Considering that I was not that far from my home and they knew about the eon pack.

In the meantime, the five fire types passed next to me and not even looked in my direction. Luckily they didn't hear me when I heard them, but the size of their ears couldn't even be compared to mine.

They walked almost to the edge of the burned ground and then stopped as if they would be waiting for something. Then one of the buttheads stepped forward and spat a burst fire on the still-living plants.

It was just as if I heard a scream of hundreds in my head, I started shivering and it wasn't because of cold water. Plants couldn't feel pain, but I could, and just seeing this devastation of nature I felt terrible, or maybe it was because of this weak connection which was telling me what some plant need.

Other four pokemon joined shooting fire but I didn't want to look anymore, using distraction I walked out of the water and run away, and keep running until my limbs grew weak again and environment changed from a burned ground to more rocky place. The river to my right became a broad and large lake, the opposite bank was grown in canes, on the beach in which I was, were large and sharp stones. I was a little overheated by running so I once again today wetted myself in the water. The water was transparent, very cold. I wasn't going to deep and quickly returned to the beach. I lied down next to the one of the stone to dry off my fur. Unfortunately, I lied down in the shadow, forcing me to stand up and mumbling about my inattention I walked around the stone to the sunny side.

Right there where I wanted to lie, someone was already lying. I froze just I saw this thing, it was pokemon, only a little larger than me that for sure but it looked like a furred concentration of scythes and blades. On its four pawns, it had three claws, half of my leg length. Every blade was in a dark blue colour. But at the second look, I noticed that this pokemon was beaten. It was hard to notice because of a thick amount of white fur but I saw some red wounds under it. The creature didn't move, it didn't seem to notice me but it was because I came from behind of it.

I wanted to quietly return to another side of the stone, but if I try to hide, then this creature may try to find me, but if I show myself, it wouldn't have to look for me. It was always better to be the one who strikes than the one taken by surprise.

Taking one deep breath I decided to show myself and I slowly walked around the white creature and I found out that this was asleep. Maybe because of these wounds? The wounds were quite fresh, maybe it passed out or lost too much blood?

Now I knew that I couldn't walk away, not when I knew that I could help. I just hoped that this thing won't kill me when I heal it.

Staying for a while in the sun, giving a while to my leaves and healing abilities to prepare, I focused and started healing. Or at least making the pain less noticeable. As I walked closer to this creature my nose attacked strong odour of musk. After some healing, it should be washed, but I didn't plan to do it. Not too much of this help, I won't be washing a random pokemon I just met. Especially those who I couldn't even touch without being cut.

Making myself comfortable on the ground I started exhaling helpful, slightly yellow pollen. It stunk as always, but I bet that Cera would say that it smells lovely. Maybe I didn't like my own smell? What smell could I consider as nice? Flowers weren't bad, but I wouldn't consider them as pleasing, just neutral. Maybe a strong and wet breeze from the river in the morning, just before the sun appeared, when its glow was already visible. Maybe it was more than just a scent, but I thought that was something that I would be willing to feel.

Focusing on my patient, I saw that some smaller cuts and wounds had already healed and closed. But this still was one large wound, going across the flank of the white body, which stubbornly didn't want to heal. I stood up and walked closer so the pollen was falling straight at the wound but it still wasn't enough. Also, the wound looked strange, it wasn't made by talons, it was similar to the one I had when I was still an eevee and had jumped into a bush of briars.

I saw that from the wound was draining some strange liquid, and for sure it wasn't blood.

 _Poison!_

I was too afraid to touch it; my last experience with poison was quite dramatic and I didn't want to lay unconscious here, next to a creature which may not be friendly.

But I knew now that my abilities may not be enough if I wanted to fight this wound. I needed to find help in nature. What did I need to look for? Plant with thorns and poison.

Considering that quadruped creature passed out walking in one direction, I started looking for the plant. I quickly found the low, thin broken branch and twigs; it was my path. The number of broken branches increased, and I even found whole mowed bushes.

This creature had a lot of blades, maybe it was just like these fire-types which I saw earlier, destroying nature. I really wanted to stay here longer and help these plant to grow again but my mind was telling me that the life of pokemon was more important. Anyway, I hated when someone was considering me as a plant, so I shouldn't do anything that would make them think that this thinking is the correct thinking.

I saw a bush covered in something red, it wasn't blood. I walked closer to inspect the plant. I wasn't sure how it was possible that bush like that could make such wound but that wasn't time to think about it. As I was always doing trying to learn something about a plant, I touched it with the brown part of my paw, watching closely to avoid any thorns. The feeling of connection was different than usual, aside from feeling typical process which plant was doing or feeling what it like or dislike, I felt in it something more. As if in this plant there was another creature, no, not one, ten at last.

I quickly broke the contact. There was something bad with that, something really bad and something with what I had never met, but even in that short contact, I learned what I wanted to learn. Suddenly, I stopped seeing the forest around me as a safe place, forty steps behind me was a plant whose petals were able to neutralise the poison, that's what I learned. Not looking at my environment anymore, I ran as fast as I could, and because I had been running quite a lot this day, it wasn't fast at all. The plant which I was looking for had violet flowers growing on low branches of a young tree. Not even stopping, I grabbed two of them in my muzzle, ignoring my leafeon's instinct which was telling me that I should prepare the tree to lose some flowers. I had never before since I evolved felt so bad in the forest and I wanted just to return to the beach, not only to heal my patient faster, I just wanted to return to the open field.

The thick furred pokemon hadn't moved since I left him, only more of this half-transparent liquid appeared, I jowled the violet flowers in my muzzle and spat it on the wound. I could do it with a paw and tail but I really didn't want to touch this creature. When the milled flowers and strange liquid connected, it foamed and I couldn't see any longer what was happening with the injury, I just believed that it was how it should look and made a step back.

Suddenly the white body jumped from the ground and faster than I could react hit me with its head sending me at my back, impulsively I tried to stand up but then my throat met a very sharp thing on its way so I immediately stopped moving.

What I saw were two almond-shaped, determined red eyes on the blue feline face and large scythe-like horn pending from the side of its head, now inches from my neck.

"Wow," I breathed, "I didn't see this horn earlier."

"If you are able to talk then why you were silent all this time!" it screamed at me, and I felt its blade press on my neck, I already was sure that I had cut. "It doesn't matter any longer; I will free you from the chain of life!"

"What?! No, wait! I am too young to die! I didn't do anything wrong pleeese! " my voice trembled as the fear make my heart beat faster, my thought vanished and the only thing what mattered was a blade too close to my skin.

"What?" it asked, and its press on my neck lightened.

"What?" I answered back since I wasn't sure for what it is asking.

"What did you say? Aren't grass-type only stupid creature not able even to speak?"

"I don't know, I have never met grass-type, what do they look like?" Its paw on my chest was heavy and long talons were looking even sharper from that close.

"Stop fooling me, you are a grass type!" it raised its voice at me but taking its blade away from me examine me with its eyes.

"Am I? Well, I am Zar the leafeon by the way," I greeted it, shortly waving with one of my paws and trying to smile, which wasn't too easy in the current situation. It made the white-furred to stay in place for the longer while.

"What are you doing here?" it finally asked but still pushing me to the ground.

"I was passing and saw you lying here, and you were poisoned so I healed you," I explained myself shortly. "But... why were you cutting so many plants?"

"Cutting? The forest attacked me! All these grass-types, they were trying to kill me! Like any other pokemon here!" it said angrily.

"Sounds bad, but could you let me stand up?" I asked kindly, guessing from the tone of voice that the pokemon above me was female.

"I am still not sure if I believe in anything you said," it answered and annoyed me by this. So I was running around the forest to help her and went through all of my small amount of abilities, but instead of a simple 'thanks', I was tossed to the ground, got a cut on the neck and called a liar, even if I was trying to be nice all this time. But my patience had its limits and if she reaches them, then I didn't know what I would do since I was pinned to the ground and I couldn't do much. At least, I would be glaring.

"So I saved your white-furred ass from poison and healed your wounds but you call me a liar and threatened me with... this curved horn. It's my first time..."-I paused since I didn't want to say from where I was"...outside but I thought that no one would want to kill me after I saved its life!"

"If grass types wouldn't attack me, I wouldn't need to be saved!" she barked, or I just guessed that it was she. I wasn't sure. I never saw pokemon like 'her' before so it wasn't obvious to me. At the closer look, the was much more slender than I first thought. If I would compare her to any eon, only Sogot would be taller but there were few eons that would be more massive than she was. However there was some grace and maybe even some pulchritude in her look, not that I would like or want it. I would like to free myself from her paw which was still lying on my chest, and it wasn't a light paw.

"I really don't know why grass types had to attack some... what are you?"

"You don't even know what I am?" she said raising an eyebrow but now her tone sounded offended. "Heh," she breathed and stopped pinning me to the ground. "Go away, you are not even worthy to be my prey."

I wasn't wasting time and quickly stood up, but I didn't think to just go away. However, it was nice to be able to breathe freely again.

 _Bitch!_ I thought, there was no reaction.

"You are not a psychic type that for sure," I started my guessing what she may be.

"And what made you think that I am not?" she said putting in her words such antipathy that I wasn't sure if going away wouldn't be a good idea, but I stayed or rather started following her as she walked by the lake bank, I wanted to, at least, learn her species and why grass types had to attack her, and where I am, and... generally I had a lot of questions.

"I have my way to check this." She looked at my curiosity as if she would believe me, again. "I have espeon friend," I added thinking that this would be more convincing. It was.

"A grass type, who has a friend from another type? You are really not from here. You should leave, no one likes grass types here," she said going into barks again.

"Well, I really wish I could, but I don't know where I am," I said. "But why does no one like grass types? Is there something wrong with them?"

"They're annoying," she spoke shortly not satisfying my curiosity.

"Eh, is it a reason to dislike this type so much?" I asked.

"Oh shut up finally!" she exploded turning to me. "The is the middle of types conflict."

"You don't like them because they are defending themselves?" I asked surprised.

"No, I hate them because they tried to kill me."

"Uh, so you are a fire type?"

"No, I am the darkness," she said darkly and her face expression went wild, red in her eyes glowed, sharp teeth blinked.

"Wow, you made it almost as good like when Serge is doing it," I praised her.

"What? Who is Serge? What you mean by 'it'" I caught her off guard.

"That face, Serge, he is an umbreon and he was doing it sometimes, too, but his was scarier. I would say that you were close to his, not that Serge would ever able to scare me," I explained reminding how many times Serge actually was able to scare me.

"This really doesn't affect you? But this is an ability, you are a grass type, you shouldn't be resistant to dark moves, even if you already saw it!" she babbled, losing all this artificial pride somewhere.

"Maybe dark moves don't work in the light? Heh?" She glared at me.

"Should I try something different? Maybe a shadow ball to the face?" she proposed sweety. Whatever the shadow ball was I didn't want to try it.

"So you are a dark type? It is not really fit your appearance, you look more like an ice type," I assumed.

"Absol! I am absol if you really need to know that, and I am not ice-type, though I don't mind to be in cold," she spoke and returned to walking across the beach.

So this is how absol looks like, she even fit Liss description. But Liss also said that they can be also in red colour.

"So you are saying that you know some umbreon?"

"Yeah, he is my best friend!"

"Pathetic at least, dark-types doesn't make friends, we live lonely. He lied to you that he is your friend," she informed lapsing into a know-it-all tone of voice.

"In my pack, every umbreon has a friend, at least, he is receptive of happiness since staying only with yourself and your own thoughts it is much easier to be saddened," I said. "Funny isn't it? You could be afraid that someone's words would hurt you but your own thought can drive in depression much easier."

"Oh shut up, what shit are you talking to me about now," she cut me sharply but she didn't say anything more. For the moment I was following her in the silence, but already new thought stroked my mind and I only waited as the absol calmed down.

"What were you doing in this forest? I mean, you said about this conflict and that grass types attacked you and all, but what I saw were cut plants, not pokemon," I said, and I was very glad that it was just plants, they could grow again, pokemon couldn't.

"They are not showing themselves; they use the plant as their weapon, the forest should be avoided now," she spoke not looking back, currently I couldn't see the forest since we were passing by a tight crossing between a high cliff and the lake. Even if the crossing was stable, some larger water waves could reach my paws, which was rather a pleasure and I didn't mind. The absol that didn't find it necessary to tell me her name, as opposed to myself, was trying to avoid the water.

With fur like hers, I would be trying to avoid water too, it probably took a day to dry.

"So if the forest is dangerous then, why did you enter it? Falling into a trap is, well, unlucky, but going into danger consciously is very stupid," I said trying to stop following her behind and walk side by side, but the narrow path made it impossible and I only splashed water around trying to get faster.

"I am an absol, we are brave and I won't be scared by some moving plants," she praised, but still not giving me more attention. It was very uncomfortable to speak with someone's back who doesn't put any interest in their words.

"Aren't stupidity and bravery the same thing, and you just call it bravery when you succeed and stupidity when you fail? And you... didn't succeed." She had stopped for a while before she turned, not to me, but to the wall of the cliff, and in a few seconds climbed to the top of it, disappearing from my sight.

"Hey! Are you just going to leave me here?" I shouted at the edge of the cliff but there was no response. Maybe I could be a little annoying, but I was far away from home in a place which I didn't know, so I thought that I could ask some questions. Or maybe I was asking the wrong pokemon, Liss was telling me that absols are not friendly, rather lost in their own pride, creatures whose goals are a great mystery. This absol's goal was a mystery to me too, if she was a dark type and only fire and grass types were fighting then what did she want to achieve here? Maybe she cared the about fire-types? Or maybe there was something different, something which would 'fit' the kind of dark-type which she thought every dark-type should be?

The cliff had ended, and my road turned once again on a flat sandy beach, and with it, the sight of the forest. But should I be afraid of the forest? Learning that I was grass type wasn't something very surprising, I thought that it would be hard to be different type then grass-type with leaves like ears and tail. It was more like confirmation of what I knew or what I had guessed.

So at least in theory, the forest shouldn't hurt me, assuming that local grass types would look only at the type, not at the species. I decided to try it and I walked among the trees. If something would go bad, I would just return to the lake and return to following its bank. Being already lost had the advantage of that I couldn't lose my way. The forest was dense but the plants weren't old, it was weird, how everything could be so large and young at the same time? It looked as if this forest had suddenly appeared yesterday in the form which I currently saw. I could notice it, seeing the colour of fruits and feeling it, that these plant hadn't aged many years or even weeks. Maybe was it caused by grass-types which somehow could make plants that don't get old? I thought like that until I saw that parts of the ground were covered by the ashes.

It was all distortion, the forest that was burned had grown again in no time, but the plants shouldn't be forced to grow quickly, it was too unnatural. I saw what was happening here, fire types are burning the forest to the ground because they can't enter it, but the forest is growing back just in the next day.

"The world is weird," I mumbled. Could it force pokemon to kill each other, to create conflicts? Was it because of the difference between them, or was it something different? Not that I had never seen pokemon fighting, in the pack there were conflicts too, it wasn't possible to make everyone think the same. But it had its limits, here these limits were broken or maybe they didn't even exist from the start. Conflicts have a nasty tendency to teach those who have them how to avoid them in the future, maybe in my pack, everyone already learned how to live peacefully but locals still had it ahead.

But it was just me and my thinking, trying to orientate myself in a situation which I had to face. I still hoped that I would be able to avoid it somehow but I was lost, I didn't know where to walk. To make things worse, it started raining.


	6. Ch6 'Light of Midnight'

The rain increased, I was lying between the roots of a tree with a huge, trembling crown, curled in the tightest possible ball under the leaves. My fur smelled intense, filling the air around with the sweet aroma. The tree wasn't good protection against the water and even here, the rain could reach me. I kept my waterproof tail to cover me from the shower, but the wind was changing often, and with it, the direction of the lashing rain. I would keep protecting myself with leaf-tail but I couldn't fight against the coldness brought by the rain and wind. It got really cold, as my fur was getting wetter and wetter, so every wind blow was feeling colder. With time, the ground watered too, and started to share its coldness with me. I was freezing, I was freezing from the tip of the nose to the rear knee, I hadn't enough sense in my tail to say if it was freezing too, but seeing how thin it was I shouldn't have a doubt that it would be even colder than every other part of my body.

I wasn't bothering myself with the tail or the rest of my leaves, these more plant parts of me usually were much colder places than the rest of my body. Normally their heat was almost undetectable. Aside from my leaves, I felt the coldness and I couldn't stand it now. There was nowhere to walk but I couldn't stay here, I didn't want to. It took me a while to untangle my legs from that tight ball and finally stand up. The wind quickly took away from me the rest of my heat, as I had kept in a curled position, and now I could say that I was completely wet. I was already tired of keeping my tail above me so I let it fall down. It uncomfortably stuck to my back and head, hiding its green part from my view and only white part of leaf stayed in sight. Being wet and in the shadow of the clouds it seemed to even glow with whiteness, I couldn't keep my eye on it too long or colourful dots would start to dance across my vision. Choosing a random direction, I started to walk through the mud and almost immediately fell to the ground when each of my four legs slipped in another direction causing my belly to meet the ground, hard.

"This weather," I grumbled. "Why does it need to be like that for most of the time?"

With the leaf on my back and the mud on my bottom, I stood up again and, now choosing more stable ground, I made my way through the forest.

It was pointless, I could close my eyes during the walk and just walk ahead. Anything here seemed familiar, I could have even been here yesterday, but I didn't remember anything of the environment. Then my ears caught a sound, not the sound of the wind, undulating, swishing tree's leaves or the sound of tensed wood. It was a voice, a bark.

Not caring if would it be a predator or something more friendly, I ran following the sound of the voice. I stopped for a moment, rotating my ears in different directions and ran again. I slowed down when the source of the voice was close. Now, much slower and completely silent, I crawled under one of the bush to see what was behind it.

It was a predator indeed, two of them, and one of them I already knew. It was the same grumpy absol which I saved before, what was her name? Did she even tell me that?

The creature before her was a mightyena, this species I already knew. A few winters ago a pack of them were passing near the home of my pack and even though this species was known for its aggression, they didn't attack my compatriots.

The two dark-types were standing, facing each other, both of them were in lowered stances and slightly showed fangs. It looked as if they would wait for the other move.

At first look, I thought that if they would be fighting then mightyena wouldn't have much to say versus absol, it was clearly visible that absol was bigger and stronger, owning to a much more abundant number of blades and claws. But on second thought, I noticed how wounded she was, the injuries which I healed opened again, also the biggest and most problematic point appeared. She probably wasn't resting as she should. Now she was probably feeling the pain of it, I judged it seeing how hard it was for her just standing, she was shaking, not like me from the coldness, it was more like an attempt to find a position in which she could have a break from the pain.

She started walking in a circle, keeping her distance from the mightyena. Now I could see that the old wounds weren't the only ones which she had. On the opposite flank, the blood was still flowing out of a long cut, changing the colour of her fur to red and making it stick together close to her skin. She was in the losing position.

The bush in which I was hiding moved slowly forward, it caught me so surprised that I just stayed where I was lying, stopped breathing and just keep watching how the bush was joined in its slow move forward toward the dark-types, which seemed to not see anything by other the bushes. They were so focused on each other, that they didn't notice that environment changed and was actually dragging itself with root forward like some misshaped bug.

The mightyena was the first who saw the weird behaviour of plants, but instead of surprise, he just turned and run away as if he had seen a group of pissed flareons. Absol for the moment was looking at the direction that her foe disappeared As she was still processing what happened, one of the bushes shot out its slender branches, grabbing the dark type's leg. She jumped, or tried to since the bush, like a living creature, dragged her down making her gasp. Then another one started to entwine the white pokemon. She screamed with anger and every one of her blades: the horns on her head, tail and claws, kindled in the dark energy cutting the branches as the absol was wildly struggling in dangerous thickets.

She was able to slice two plants into small pieces before she was immobilised and unable to cut any more; I saw how the branches were slowly clutching the absol and how desperately she was trying to free herself. I couldn't just watch it, I needed to do something, anything!

Without any ideas, as there was absolutely no time to think, I ran to her as fast I could, and bit.

I bit the evil plant and I completely didn't feel bad that I was hurting the plant. But my teeth weren't sharp and didn't cut the branches, also weren't long, so they didn't sink too deep into it, doing no harm.

However, the plants stopped moving and started to lose their colours, just to become snow as white and be dissolved by the rain, leaving me alone with gritted teeth and the absol currently lying motionless on the ground.

I decided to think about what just happened later, and for now, I focused just on the absol. She was still bleeding but I didn't find that she was poisoned like before, one less problem. But it won't be easy to heal her now, I was wet, my leaves were wet and it was still was raining so I couldn't exhale any healing powder.

I tried another idea, lifting my tired tail from my back, I covered absol's body with it and then I just did what I usually do, started to exhale the healing substance. I hoped that mixed with water didn't make it lose its properties and would heal her wounds. Being covered in my leaf, I couldn't see if it worked or not so I tried to keep it longer than I usually do by the airway.

After some time had passed, I lifted my tail and saw that it worked only slightly, but still enough. I did the same with her second flank, it was hard to lift her and put her on her another side, especially on wet ground, but I managed to do it.

"The cave," she spoke suddenly, without opening her eyes or showing any other sight of life. "Over there," she added, pointing somewhere in the forest and trying to stand. I helped her, allowing her to fall back on me, I just didn't expect her to be so heavy, I didn't manage to stand and fell to the ground with the absol on my back. Pushing the ground with all four paws I managed to lift both of us to stand once again, but I felt that she took most of her weight on her own strength. Slowly, we started walking to where she said the cave was. I was supporting other eeveelutions earlier while I was helping Cyrus, but I was rather a light build and couldn't take too much on my back. The absol was far out of my limits, but somehow we manage to get to the cave. The entrance was round, going straight underground. I wasn't sure if I should just jump in there, but then absol just allowed herself to fall into a hole. I heard the thud, it wasn't deep. I followed her underground and was really pleased that I could finally stand in a dry place, without the rain falling on my head or slippy mud under my paws. What I didn't like was how dark it was here and the smell of the cave, it had an intensive odour of musk.

I kept my tail on the absol body when I lied down, waiting to dry off the water. Part of it was absorbed by my leaves, but not much, I guessed that they had enough water already.

I wondered if Cera... and the whole rest of my friends also were having weather like this. Each of them hidden in their den, waiting for the sun, well maybe except Struga, that vaporeon is probably jumping from happiness now. Did they notice that I was missing? It was just a day so maybe I wasn't on their mind yet, but for sure they noticed something. What would they do when they find out that I was missing? Would they try to search for me or wait until I return, even I didn't know where I am, so they wouldn't know where should they look for me. I wish I could be with them, not in the stinking cave with an unconscious self-important absol, why was I even saving her? Last time she almost killed me for it, she didn't even say 'thanks', but I also couldn't just watch what was happening there. _What did I even do there? I just bit that bush and suddenly all of them became ill and disappeared, but was it just because of my bite?_

I picked one of the smaller leaves from my chest and wrested it. I didn't expect it to hurt so much when the wave of pain filled my mind, it was worse than pulling fur. Gritting my teeth I remain silent, even in this cave I still didn't feel safe.

I bit the leaf to check if it became white too, or at last this part which wasn't always white, nothing happened. I was actually disappointed as I thought that I discover some new leafeon ability, I wasn't sure of the use of it in the future, I doubted that I would have to bite plants all around the pack's clearing, but I really wanted to find something new that I could do.

Suddenly a pain went through my spine and I fell backwards, landing on my stomach as my tail was pulled by something. When I looked back, with an angry glare, I saw that absol made herself more comfortable using my tail as kind of cover. I sat up taking my tail away from the absol and curling it around my legs. Being deprived of the cover she woke up and lifted her head a little.

"It's you again," she grunted and her voice hadn't any happiness in it. "How low I have become if I need to be saved by someone like you."

"I, also, am pleased to see you again," I answered trying to say it at least 'nice', but with her attitude, it was hard to not just yell at her and go away. The problem was that it was still raining outside, she could kill me, and that it was pleasantly warm inside.

"What you want from me?" she asked and rasped. I hesitated with the answer, first because I didn't expect that question, I was prepared for 'go away' but at second thought I had something that I may want from her. I just wasn't sure if she wasn't just messing with me now.

"What you mean?" I questioned. She rolled on another side and I saw that I completely forgot about the injuries on this side, her horn exhaled a harsh sound rubbing against the rocky floor.

"I don't believe in potluck. I was unbeatable until yesterday, but when I could die, suddenly you appeared, a lost grass type from the land far away whose only known ability is healing," she said in doubt. "And then when I am in danger, it suddenly you appear saving me again, don't even try to say me some shit like that you did it because 'pokemon should help each other' or that 'you are helping those which need help'. You need some favour, so save our time and say what you want!"

"But... I don't know why I saved you..."

"Too bad for you, if you don't expect anything then you won't get anything, and get away from my cave now!" she ordered, jumping on her paws, but she hissed from the pain which it caused and lied back on the ground. Cursing under her breath, she tried to stand up again now much slower.

"Don't throw me out please, it's so cold that I would freeze," I pleaded, but part of me still didn't believe in what I heard, how could she just throw me out after I helped her so much.

"Bullshit, it's not even cold," she barked, but lost some of harsh in the voice.

"For you, but not for me, I don't have warming fur," I kept trying to convince her. I rather wouldn't freeze, there wasn't even snow but the cold was guaranteed.

"Until it stops raining, you can stay, but I don't want to see you later," she finally agreed to lie down again.

"Oh, thanks... eh, what's your name?"

"You don't need to know, we won't be talking," she answered grumpily, acting as if she was trying to fall asleep.

"So, how should I call you?" I didn't allow her to fool me with this sudden tiredness.

"Why you care?"

"Just to avoid calling you by your species name, from the place where I am from it is rude," I said, also lying down on the hard but smooth ground. I couldn't find any comfortable position; whatever pose I would take, the ground was pushing hard on my ribs elbow or cheekbone, lying on the leaf also wasn't helpful since it was too flat.

"So-Agaar," she said but with some stumble.

"Sugar?" I asked being unsure.

"I mean, Agaar," she corrected angrily.

"Wow, your parents really didn't like you giving you a name like this," I commented, and she immediately lost all her tiredness and willingness to sleep, jumping on all four limbs but she didn't manage to stand on them too long and with a hiss, she fell to her side, cursing, again.

"If I ever say you my real name, and you will make a comment, I will kill you," she treated me and I regretted that I said something like that. I needed to remember that she wasn't a pokemon to mess with.

"Sorry," I apologised in all honesty and remain silent. But instead of angry silent between us, I heard a chuckle.

"I just played it by ear," said Agaar turning to me, I wasn't sure if I was allowed to answer or if I should say anything, so I kept being silent.

"I mean a name," she added, thinking that I didn't get what she meant.

"Ah," I breathed, iterating that now I understand and she returned to 'sleep'.

"Why are you like this?" I said.

"Like what?"

"So assertive."

"I don't trust you."

"Why, am I so scary?"

"Scary eeveelution, it sounds like an example of an oxymoron. No, because you were able to defeat something that I couldn't, but you still play the 'dumb' and 'naïve' leafeon lost in a dark and deep forest. By the way, where are you from?" Agaar asked.

 _Should I tell her? Should I even risk a lie? Serge said that dark-types are best at lying but also at seeing a lie._

"I am from a large pack of eeveelutions, we live in the forest between the mountain and the land of nothing, there is also a curved river and..."

"Yes, yes, I know this place." Did she know? Maybe she would be able to guide me there? Or maybe it wasn't really far from here?

"You have been there?" I asked with hope.

"Yes, I was fighting for territory alongside my pack against some glaceons, I was banished because I lost," she said, a little sad, but quickly returned to her offensive tone. "I am dark-type but I am also absol, I have my honour and I won't kill some lost defenceless kid in my cave, but when the rain stops raining, and you will be in the wilderness, you won't be considered as defenceless anymore," Agaar said.

"I am an adult," I pointed out. Wasn't it visible that I wasn't small brown eevee?

"How old are you then? Eleven or fifteen years old?"

"Years?" Was it some important thing to measure age?

"Ah, yes, I remember, you don't use human's calendar, a year is like time from one winter to another," she explained, talking as if I was completely stupid.

"Well, then I am seven," I answered truthfully.

"Pff, seven, if you would be an absol, you would be still considered a small cub, but what I could expect from species which usually don't live longer than forty," she snarled. "How it is when everyone around is dying so fast hmm?"

"I don't know, I had never seen death." She was really teasing me, didn't she say that we won't be talking?

"How it is possible? In that large of a group someone is always dying," she pushed, it was right, from time to time someone needed to pass away. But not in the way she thought, when an eon hadn't too many years of his life left, then he or she was going away from the pack, usually not alone, but it was a journey without coming back.

"If someone needs to pass, then they go away and we believe that it is just a journey," I answered her.

"So you fool yourselves instead of facing reality? With lives so short like yours there needs to be no space for any worry..."

"Shut up already!" I yelled, and took her by surprise since she jerked slightly. She growled but didn't say anything more, I breathed deeply to calm down a sudden wave of anger, but I couldn't listen to her any longer. She was just like absols Liss described mixed together with dark-types Serge told me about.

I looked at the entrance, at the still falling rain, rhythmically splashing, creating puddles, I wasn't sure now if I wish to avoid rain and stay longer the cave, or go away from Agaar, far far away.

Yet, something was telling me that she was faking it, that under this shield of anger was something different, something that she wanted to hide, or maybe I couldn't accept that not everyone was friendly to each other? I was still comparing her to Serge, he was dark type too and even if Serge's anger never was focused on me, at least not on purpose, he was sometimes similar to Agaar's state of mind, like: 'don't touch me, I am biting'. For me it was like: 'I am sad because I am sad, and I avoid any chance to get over it'.

Maybe she was waiting for something amazing to happen and change her thoughts? Rather no, if her life was longer than mine then she probably learned that you can't sit and wait until this mystical 'thing' will happen, you just need to stand up and make this 'thing'.

Maybe she just had a bad day or two, or week since who knows how many times she was assaulted by bushes, I would just go away when it just stops raining. The problem was that I didn't know where to go and Agaar knew.

I rested my head on my fore-paws, I would decide where to go later, the sky was dark from clouds and the rain instead of getting weaker, only started pattering the ground even harder, well, at least it wasn't storming. I drained off into slumber.

I woke up, but not by myself. It was sounds of groans and mumbles, of heavy breathing and suffering.

I jumped on my legs thinking that dangerous bushes attacked an absol again, but I didn't see them. There was only Agaar, covered with sweat, writhing on the floor of the cave in pain.

"What is wrong with you?" I asked not very kindly because of our earlier talk, but also she disturbed my sleep.

"My head, it hurts so much and it is so cold here," she stuttered, this sudden change of mood made me stay there for a moment not sure what I was about to do.

"Wait, you feel coldness?" I was sure that she said that cold doesn't matter at all for her, plus she was perspiring, it wasn't a sign of freezing. As I walked closer I also noticed that she was shivering.

"Yes I am, I've never felt it before, it is horrible," she said weakly. It was visible that she was ill, again.

"Describe me your pain," I asked inspecting her, she was feverish.

"What I can say about pain? It just hurts!" she wanted to scream, but didn't, finding a strength she came up with a grumble.

"Move on another side," I ordered, I wanted to see this side of which I, maybe not heal, but at least tried to heal. Immobilized, she obeyed and slowly slewed the side full of red, tumid wounds from which was seeping blood coloured pus. She had an infection, an escalated one that probably this caused her fever.

"And what is it?" she asked, as I was looking at her injuries.

"You have..." I paused, wasn't it a trick? If I help her again gratuitously, won't she just insult or maybe even hurt me when she returns to health? I didn't like her, however, I didn't want her to die. Even if her company was irritating, I could sleep in a dry and warm place. But still, my antipathy was telling me to just leave her here.

"So?" asked Agaar, still waiting what I was about to say. "Will you say what is wrong with me?"

"No," I answered. "Not without something back,"

"Oh, why do you need to listen to me now," she grumbled.

"I can heal you, but then you will help me get to my pack safety," I proposed.

"No."

"What? You can die here!" I yelped surprised, was it pride or selfishness which made her decline.

"So? You can die here too without me. But the point is that I can't walk away from this forest just yet. To take you back to your pack as a prize of my life I can accept. But I have still something to do here in this forest," she said, but it wasn't easy for her to focus. "There is my counterproposition, heal me and help me to complete my goal here, and then I will give you the best protection which you can only find to return to your home."

"What is this 'goal'?" I asked suspiciously.

"I can't tell, but it is nothing big, just one day after I will be healed and we can go to your friends." I still didn't like that I didn't know what exactly she wanted from me, but what goal can have a pokemon like her have? I guess that if needed to include something that she couldn't do, because of it, she needed help. Maybe it wasn't anything hard or bad then?

"Okay, you have a temperature, it is because your wounds didn't heal since you were moving too much and open them again. I can heal your wounds, but with the fever, I don't know how to deal, it probably goes away when there will be no more wounds," I shortly answered, not mentioning a less important detail like that I didn't really know what I was doing and hoped that my instincts would guide me. In the past, I've had a fever one or two times and I remembered that it was good to put something cold on the head and warm on the rest of the body. But it was much easier when you were surrounded by eons of every element, than now, when it was only me, not able to give any heat or cold. "Try to touch something cold with your forehead, and don't move, it can sting."

As I warned, I exhaled the same as always healing pollen, I started to think that this is some multi-tool able to solve every, or maybe at least many problems. But now it wasn't painless healing as usually, Agaar hissed and tensed her muscles but didn't say anything. It was good that she didn't stay completely insensitive to this pain, it showed that my ability was working.

 _Wait. Shouldn't I clean these wounds before I heal them?_

I didn't think about it earlier, maybe because earlier it was fresh injuries which hadn't time to become dirty but these ones were put to the ground for quite a long time.

There was no way that I tried to clean her, I wasn't even cleaning my friends in the pack, it wasn't allowed and if someone was doing it, that meant close relationship. It wasn't surprising, no one wanted to be touched with the tongue of a stranger.

"Wait here a moment," I said moving out of the cave, she mumbled something like "if I could go somewhere" but was too quiet to be sure if I heard it right. Outside, it was still raining, not as much as earlier but still going. I walked out to find a puddle, it should be somewhere close to the entrance since I heard the rain splashing. I found it, a big round puddle with waves from the rain, water. It was my alternative for licking the absol. I just wanted to pick the water in my leaf-tail when my sensitive ears picked a sound of some heavy steps. I was too close to get away without being noticed so I tried to hide between nearby bushes and tree. A moment later in my view walked a green and blue giant creature, heavy stomping on four short, compared to the rest of the body, legs. He was furless, his naked skin was bumpy and looked very chunky. On its large back, it was caring something that looked like a small tree or large flower.

It seemed that it would just pass next to me, not even noting me, but it stopped, just in front of the puddle and started to drink, really really slowly and loudly, I could hear every its gulps, water splashing from his mouth, rumbles when the water was moving down of his throat and disgusting plop when the water reached its belly. It kept drinking like that ostentatious and sickeningly until there was no water left in the puddle, only then it stopped, licked its wide mouth and continued its walk disappearing from my view but I didn't move yet since I still could hear it.

When its steps weren't louder then dripping of rain around I dared to walk out of my hiding spot. The puddle was empty but even if there would be still some water I wouldn't take it, I needed clear one, not with some saliva.

As I searched around, and I didn't want to go too far from the cave (I wouldn't be able to find a way back) I couldn't find any puddle. That was something amazing and irritating at the same time. Not surprising that Agaar was so aggressive while even plants here were fighting with each other for every drop of water. They were taking more than they needed causing weaker to die. Also, I found some more tracks of this giant creature which, just like the plants around here, was haunting for water. Soon I would need it by myself and because of high competition here I wasn't sure if I find some.

My irritation only rose when I looked at all the ground around the cave and didn't find anything, despite that everything around was wet. I tried another way to get some water, I set my tail in the shape I needed to keep water on it and waited until the rain would fill this.

As I become bored of just waiting, I also started collecting drops of water left on leaves of other plants until I thought that I have enough.

"What took you so long?" asked Agaar in pain when I returned, carefully balancing, trying to not pouring the mustered water.

"Your wounds need to be washed before I heal them, so I found some water," I explained, showing my small amount of water, it wasn't much but I a wasn't used to caring anything with the tail so it seemed to weigh a lot.

"You didn't need to go outside for water, there is water in this cave," she accused angrily.

Seeing the pointlessness of my efforts, I stood in place for a moment before I threw the water on her, she curled up and started to shake even more. She really was ill.

"I will pay you back when I'm healthy again," she warned by tightening teeth.

"Yes, for the healing you will take me back to my home."

"After..."

"After I help you with something, yeah I remember," I cut, continuing the earlier paused process of bringing her back to health, as she continued to shiver, hissing and cursing under her breath. I added some of the sleep powder to my exhaled curative effect and soon calm breathing was the only sound emitted by absol.

"Are you trying to make an enemy from every pokemon which tries to help you?" I asked the sleeping dark-type, I was tired of her negative attitude, yet it seemed that I would stick with her for a little longer.

The only sight that time didn't stop in this cave were the less and less visible wounds on her white flank, and my growing hunger. I didn't know if it was middle of the day or night, the cave was dark all the time, but when Agaar had her mouth shut I could hear that somewhere deeper in the entrails of the cave was plopping some water.

I came to the conclusion that underground water needed to be very cold and could make her feel even worse. The water gathered by me also wasn't warm, but at least it wasn't that cold.

How long has it been? Two days? Two days since I left, or rather lost, my pack and from selfless helped everyone who just asked me, I started to trade someone's life for helping me. It was wrong but necessary, I needed help, and when asking for it wasn't effective, I was forced to do what I could to gain it.

I grimaced at how ridiculous it sounded, but I only had a bad and an even worse chose, I hated choices like this, and every time I was in a situation of this kind, I would prefer to not chose at all. But even if Agaar would say 'absolutely no' would I be able to leave her? Probably not, and probably she knew about it, that's why she wasn't afraid to modify my proposition. Guess no one who has some kind of blade or claw from every side of its body would be afraid of someone who has just leaves.

The further into the cave I was, the darker it was and the less I could see. Following the sound of water, I walked deeper into the grotto carefully putting my paws on the stony ground until I touched, firstly wet stone, later, incredibly cold water. I satisfied my thirst, and regardless of how cold it was I still would feel great again, if I could catch some light. It became even darker outside, I guess it was night right now. I wasn't sleepy, I wasn't even sure if I was tired, even if I wanted to be and feel like this. I walked outside, it wasn't raining anymore but the stars weren't visible, it probably still was cloudy. The air was still foggy, but coldly refreshing, almost like in the home. I breathed deeply and stayed like that for a moment until the coldness penetrated my thin layer of fur and a short shiver ran through my body, I quickly turned around to the cave, but turning my tail made a weird and unusual sound, not thrill, not rustle, not even whizz, something between.

I wanted to hear it again, I moved my tail left, but the sound didn't repeat, I moved to the right, still nothing. I quickly spun around and then I heard it again so I spun again, and again, running around in a chaotic dance, spinning wildly. I reminded me about chasing my own tail, with a difference being that I wasn't even looking at it but listening to the new sound. Suddenly I was disturbed by different, cracked and sharp sound just when my tail hit something hard.

"What are you doing?"

I jumped away turning around in the air just to see Agaar standing there with a rather confused expression on her face. Even if her wounds hadn't disappeared completely, they were healed and shouldn't suddenly open. Agaar also seemed to be in a little better mood, I could judge it by the look of her eyes, even if those almond-shaped, half covered by white tuft and always red eyes seemed to emit anger, they looked good now.

"I was... running," I babbled.

"That was 'running'?" she asked sceptically cocking her head, unfortunately hooking the small branch which was few inches from her curved horn.

 _Why do I even have to explain myself to her? But it could be a step forward into a bit more friendly relation with her._

"I just had too much energy and it is quite a nice night today, I also was fighting the cold," I said.

"Nice night? Am I dreaming or did I meet grass type who enjoy the night?" she asked, staring harder at me for a moment. "You really are not sleepy?"

"No, just hungry, is that bad?" I generally felt better during the day, but didn't mind to stay a while in the night, I didn't see much but I usually had a light-friend, umbreon, with me. Maybe now, when I don't have anyone who would light up my path I should care more to not walk in the night?

"Just not usual, grass-types usually seek the light and hide during the night," she said, and seemed to be a bit amazed by me now.

"I didn't know that it is possible to hide from night-type during the night, aren't you able to see everything at night?" I couldn't remember any time when Serge couldn't find me during our games of hide and seek, back when I was still an eevee.

If I think about it now, in these moments, Serge was longer an umbreon than I was now a leafeon, he was really babysitting me, funny how fast things change. Maybe Agaar had some right saying that eeveelutions' lives are short and full of fast changes?

"I am, but it is a different kind of hiding, I don't know every plant in this forest and they are hiding by pretending to be a plant. It is hard to recognise what is plant and what is pokemon then, most of them just look like plants," absol explained, and I thought that her fever passed and started wondering if my pollen had some effect to put others into a better mood. She was dark-type, it was night, she was healthy, and yet she was nicer than before, or maybe it was just a fake or she really could be nice.

"So, how do you feel? Do you feel any pain?" I asked, she looked at her flank as if she forgot that she was even injured, it was a quite typical behaviour to everyone who I healed. They were looking at their wounds as if it could at any moment answer that it's okay. I was asking if she can feel pain, she didn't need to look at her wounds to answer to it.

"Guess I am fine," she said finally. "A bit lightheaded but okay. I think it's a good time to tell you what I want you to help me with. And then I would take you to... whatever you wanted to go."

"But why did you need me to do this 'thing'," I asked before she started explaining anything.

"It needs to be a grass-type, and seeing how you counter other grass-types, you are perfect for it."


	7. Ch7 'Thief of light'

Chapter 7 "Thief of light"

* * *

"I don't really get how it's supposed to work," I said to the walking next to me, absol. Half of her plan seemed irrational, impossible to succeed and another half I didn't understand, but probably it wasn't easy either.

"What part of it don't you understand? It is easy! All you have to do is walk there, take one thing and carry it back!" said Agaar, and her irritation rose when I again had some doubts.

"I just don't get how I am supposed to walk into a place which, as you said, nobody has left alive!"

"You are a grass-type like them, they won't attack you and even if they do, you can do the same thing you did earlier," she explained, but this explanation didn't convince me.

"Why won't they attack me? Being the same type doesn't mean that they would welcome me, offering the best sunny spot with a touchy lake." I would think that I hear something so naive of her.

"Why do you think that they are intelligent?" she asked, changing to a less offensive voice. It almost sounded sweet, almost, but I still knew that it was hers.

"Because you are, I am, and I guess that most pokemon are, maybe only the smallest are not," I said and saw that she smiled when I said 'I am' but I left it without comment.

"Eeveelutions are actually one of the smallest," she said, and smiled even wider when she saw my ears flattered in opposite directions. It was a sign of annoyance, but I wasn't expecting her to know that, absols didn't have movable ears. "But if it comes to grass-types, they are stupid like a log to which they are similar. The more similar they look to a plant, the more stupid they are. But how different could they be if all they have to do to live is lie in the sun? They won't see that you are new here."

"How did you learn that?" I asked.

"I am guessing, discussion over, we arrived." The place we arrived was where the forest became really thick, it was like a high wall of greenery covering a place where grass-types had to have their nest.

"So just as we planned, you go look around, return, guide me safely inside and repeat until we find 'it'" she reminded. Agaar didn't know what 'it' was called or what it looked like, but she was convinced that if she could see it then she would recognise 'it'. "I will help you with the first step," she offered and prepared her blade to cut the thickness of plants.

"Don't!" I warned impulsively before she could even touch the defenceless leaves, she stopped but looked a little irritated.

"What?!" she barked.

"You don't need to mow the way, I can just go through them and grass types can 'feel' that you cut plants so nearby to their nest," I fastly blurted, getting a confused and questioning stare. "If you cut them then they would know about it, you said that it's at the centre of this forest. Because of it, every grass-type can be very sensitive to this place. Also, it wouldn't be very convincing, even if they are as stupid as you said, they could be suspicious why a leafeon is mowing his way."

"Why do you think that they can feel it?"

"Because I can, and I am not really over-plant-protected or sentimental with this place."

Absol however, instead of the backing away from the plants, started to poke them.

"You feel it?" she asked.

"I didn't mean touch, only dryness, illness or death! It can tell me what some plant needs, how it can be used or what plants I can find around."

"It can tell you what is around? How accurate usually it is?"

"Uh, quite accurate, I wasn't using it too often but it never failed me, why are you asking?"

"Try to use it and find these pokemon! Gah, why you didn't say it earlier, it could save us a lot of time. We don't even need to split, just use this... green vision," she said hurrying. "I want to cut them anyway, I don't want to squeeze through them."

Considering that her wounds, even healed, were still fresh and could cause some pain if touched, I could understand that she wanted to avoid it.

"Doesn't matter, stay quiet now, I am focusing," I answered and like yesterday, I tried to reach the plants under my paws, entering a broad web of connections with thousands of thousands living parts of forest's greenery. There were also these strange appearances, the same which scared me when I was looking for the cure trying to heal that poison. But now I didn't back away, I thought that these appearances could be actually other connected grass-types. They weren't anywhere close, nor on the way we wanted to go. It appeared to be a bit unexpected for me since I thought that we are going to some highly guarded place, forest's heart and sanctuary. I wasn't sure what I was expecting but something impressive, build by many generations of local grass-types, a large clearing with thick grass, covered by outspread tree's crowns. Something like that, something that would need protection but it looked like our way was just clear, so I started guiding.

But as it was much easier to follow Agaar than guiding by myself, it was still the night. Admittedly, the moon when it is larger provided some light, but where the plants were growing thicker, darkness was hiding everything.

"Move already!" growled Agaar.

"I can't see anything," I explained away, getting an annoyed sigh as an answer. She moved ahead again, nudging me offensively in the process.

"Say which way and if you would feel anything, warn me in time," she barked, I agreed by a nod.

"Ahead and little to left."

We weren't talking more, just going, it would be very quiet if Agaar wouldn't be grumbling, growling and cursing when some random branch hooked against her fur, touching and irritating her fresh healed skin. I couldn't keep a connection with the environment all the time, it was too exhausting, only from time to time I stopped to scan the area hoping that it would be enough.

We were moving very slow, the absol seemed to remember about my warning to leave plants alive but going through them wasn't easy, especially when Agaar tried to avoid being touched by every possible branch, twig and even leaf. She was quite good at it, contorting in the craziest way I have ever seen, making me wonder why her spine hadn't broken yet and if she had a spine at all. Despite all her efforts, some parts of the environment still were able to reach her side, making her hiss angrily and throw some unspeakable words on the poor... whatever it was.

"Hide!" I threw just as in thickness I noticed something different. She hid, or rather disappeared. I didn't see her running away, but she was gone. As if she had melted into the air.

 _How was it possible? That white colour is well visible in the dark._

I looked around but it was too dark to see anything, even the noise of her breathing disappeared and all I could hear was a nearing sound of waddling. A moment later I saw a medium sized blue bush walking awkwardly on two short legs, spreading its tentacle-like branches around checking the ground probably being blind in the night. I didn't move and hold my breath as this thing passed just next to me moving to where I was going earlier.

"I hate tangela," spoke Agaar's voice straight in my ear. "I never know if it is already dead, unless there are two of them. Then the sobs of one of them tell me that I can stop cutting its limbs off."

Normally, I would jump with a scream, scared of sudden sound just next to my ear, needed a moment to calm down then blame her for scaring me and end with asking what the fuck she meant with that tangela. But I was still keeping my breath, instead of the scream I exhaled muted breathing out of what air left in my lungs and instead of jumping, I felt that I started to lose orientation.

 _Breathe!_ I reminded myself.

"Where were you?" I asked silently.

"I was just next to you all the time," she answered. "You just said 'hide' so I hid."

"It was as if you disappeared completely or turned invisible! How did you do that?"

"It's my thing how. I wasn't asking you how you are taking with plants, so don't ask me how dark-type work in the night!" she growled with a sudden burst of anger.

"Sorry, I didn't know that is so important, I was just curious," I explained, backing away a little.

"You are from a different kind of wilderness, here we don't talk about type's abilities. A mystery is everyone's weapon and asking for it is showing disrespect, but this one time I will leave it. Because you didn't know," she barked still visibly angry. I didn't want to continue this altercation so I just nodded in the way we supposed to go.

We quickly caught up to the tangela and, keeping a safe distance, started following her, or he, I wasn't sure if it had a gender. If it was a grass-type and seemed to be more plants and plants hadn't gender. It could be anything, but I, to makes thing easier, decided to call it 'he'. So, this male tangela was walking slowly making him easy to follow. Agaar mention few things about the pathetic grass-type, blind blue shit and stupid moving bushes. The longer we were following him the more adjectives she was able to fit with oblivious to everything tangela and when absol seemed to finish the subject she wondered what things she would do if the fate of tangela depended on her. I quickly established that she liked to cut things mainly with claws but from time to time she mentioned also her horn and tail. However, she didn't mention anything about teeth, I was comparing her mainly to umbreon since they were the same type and umbreons were mainly used its teeth in close fights. Even if listening to her treats, they were far from something I would enjoy, I was expecting her to tell at least once about things that she would be able to do with her teeth, but it didn't appear in her long list of possibilities. Nonetheless, the list ended and tangela, oblivious to everything that was spoken, got into another wall of thick bushes disappeared from our view.

We approached the same bushes slowly and looked that was behind. First what happened was that sudden light blinded me and Agaar even hissed angrily, it looked as if behind these bush was actually day. But the light wasn't shining from above but seemed to radiate from the huge oak in the centre of the clearing. The tree was already dry and dead, broken in the middle missing its crown. But from the multiple holes in the tree was shining a light so bright and focused that even places which suppose to be covered in shadow, were lit up. It was making the clearing look unrealistic as if I would enter a dream.

"Wow, it's so beautiful here," I breathed. Even the coldness of night somehow faded away, it was as if it was really a sunny day but only on this clearing before me. When I looked up through the tree's crowns I saw still dark sky and stars. This night was generally warmer than the last one but it was still nothing with a heat coming from the strange tree.

"Hay! Leafeon! Come on!" I snapped out and looked at absol who was silently hissing to me.

"What?" I asked also silently.

"Finally, you were watching at this clearing as if you saw there desirous female which spread her legs for you," she taunted forcing me with her paw to lower level so I couldn't look through the bushes any longer, and also was less visible for anyone who may be there.

"Was I drooling?" I asked sheepishly.

"Why you are asking?"

"No reason." Agaar seemed to size me up for a moment before she shook her head.

"You saw that shining thing?" she asked putting away my question.

"You mean tree? Yeah" I nodded. "It looked as if it was dead but was shining so intensively, what was that?"

"It is not a glowing tree stupid, it was something inside of it, and this is 'it', 'it' was what we were talking about and what we are going to take," she reminded but I fell in confusion.

"How we are supposed to take the tree with us? Maybe you saw some grass-types making bushes move as they want but I can't do it," I said. "I also can't convince dead glowing trees to walk with us."

"It's not a glowing tree!" she barked returning to her angry tone. "It is something inside, kind of stone in size of your head, maybe smaller. You going to take it and give it to me. Then you will be in your home in no-time."

"Really?"

"No, it's at least two weeks of walking to reach the place you said you are from but it can be longer if you won't move and take it already!"

Gritting my teeth, I turned back to the glade and carefully left our hiding spot when my eyes lied on a suspicious looking pile of leaves. I didn't spot it earlier as I was staring at the tree but this pile shouldn't be here, or at least shouldn't be that big as there were no such big trees around so it could be created naturally. It was also something similar in that hill of leaves. Maybe was it this giant flower which looked like a small tree, at the top of the pile. As I looked more attentively around I spotted more suspicious looking parts of the environment. Tangela burrowed in bushes, giant sunflowers which weren't actually just simple plants, cones growing on trees which kind shouldn't have cones. Agaar was right that grass-types were good at hiding as a part of the forest, someone who may not know every kind of plants around here or is different than type may miss all of it, I almost missed it.

Why was I expecting it to be easy? It couldn't be just a simple walk, grab a thing that I needed and go back to Agaar. Instead, I had to crawl between sleeping pokemon, who knows what they do if they wake up? I lowered to the ground and I felt blades of grass rubbing against my chest and crawled in the mystical tree's direction. It wasn't far, but every step I made, I made with putting into it all my focus and attention making it as quiet, carefully and slowly as I only could. Even then, my steps sounded like thunder in the absolute silence of the glade. Sleeping ones weren't breathing, or not by mouths so I couldn't hear them, I wished that I also could suddenly change the way I was breathing as it became even louder than my walk.

In the middle of my way I needed to stop, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a movement, short and quick but when I looked more carefully at what I thought had moved, I didn't see anything that changed but then it moved again. It seemed that something was moving under the grass and could be mistaken with the wind. There was no wind on this night, and wind would move grass all over the glade and trees around. The grass was emphasising, moving to the place where I exited the bushes and slowly changed direction as if searching for my track and following what it found. It was slow but I understood that my time here was shortened, I couldn't any longer put so much attention to my paws if I didn't want this thing to reach me. It wasn't walking yet but faster than before I reached the tree, my hunter also sped up as if hearing me better now.

Close to the tree, not everything was lit up so well as the light needed a distance to spread around, under the tree I found myself in shadow. Now I had to take, or naming things by name, to steal this glowing thing inside of the old dead oak but the closes hole was too high for me to reach. Using numerous curves, cracks and growths I climbed at the hole level and looked inside. In the bright light, I saw that the oak was empty inside but there was a ledge in the middle created from a much smaller and younger tree which was fouling around shining stone. It was actually three stones melted with each other but not enough to lose visible ends between them. All stone looked like an egg, symmetrically put together in white, blue and red colour. It was smaller than Agaar described it, small enough to be caught in the muzzle.

I reached for it with my paw touching it, trying to move it closer. The stone moved a little but at the same time I started to hear some noises behind me, noises similar to these which I could hear when trees fell, but these ones were more like yawning. I reached to it again now moving it closer and fastly grabbing the stone in my mouth, pulling it out of the tree.

I did it too fast and lost balance on the tree's side, luckily it wasn't high from the ground. Just as I hit the ground with my back, the stone stopped glowing and the dark night overwhelmed this part of the forest. Someone roared loudly just right next to me with anger, a little further something cried with surprise and suddenly all peace disappeared when more and more voices started to wildly howl.

"Good job! Now run!" I heard Agaar screaming in my ear, pushing me to stand up on all four and to move. I again couldn't see her but I listened and followed her sound. I could see shapes of other pokemon in the dark but they were completely blind without the light, something heavy hit the ground on my left but too far to harm me, then again something slammed the bushes behind me tearing them and almost pulling them from the ground.

I depended only on my hearing now, turning and running where I heard the sound of four clawed paws and where I saw ghost-like white blur which I guessed was my absol.

Screams and noises of limbs slamming into random things lowered and soon there was the only noise of my and Agaar steps. My breath became heavy as I still cared the stone in my mouth and it was preventing me from breathing with a full mouth. Suddenly Agaar stopped and turned to me, I almost ran into her but managed to stop inches before her head.

"Show it!" she ordered as she made a step back from me. I spew the stone on the ground and she examined it closely.

"It doesn't glow," she said as if with pretension to me for it.

"Yeah," I nodded as she kept looking at me waiting for who knew what.

"Turn it on then," she suggested pushing the stone to me.

"But how?"

"You turned it off so now turn it on," she said sternly.

"But I don't know how, it turned off by itself," I defended myself.

"There won't be a glowing stone, there won't be my help," she argued, I didn't know what to do, I couldn't make it suddenly glow. It was the first time I saw anything like this and she required me to know how to use it.

"Why you need it to glow? I can't control this stone, earlier I didn't even know that stones can glow, even you weren't sure what it is!" I almost screamed in despair.

"It was a trade, I had to bring the glowing stone to him," she said.

"Who is he?" I asked.

"One of the fire-types so obsessed with defeating grass types."

"Than go to him during the day! He won't see if it is glowing and if he would have any doubts, just threaten him that you will slice him or other shit! He probably doesn't even know how it should look like!"

"Why are you sure about it?"

"Because to see it he would need to be there on that clearing and then he could have taken it by himself instead of making you do it," I said, adding in thought 'and you made me do it'.

"That's... actually not a bad idea," Agaar trembled but agreed, so I could take a breath of relief.

"So what now?" I asked, hoping that there won't be anything to do, since I felt tired of lurking in the night, of running, of stress, even just by standing in place.

"Take the stone and go to the cave, it's the fourth hour of the morning, the time of assassin and hunts, at this hour every mind is much weaker than usual and..."

"Yep, whatever, I heard it already from Serge more than once, he just didn't say that it was at that fourth hor and..."

"Hour," she corrected, at second thought, I wasn't sure if anyone from the pack even heard about something like hors, who needed it anyway?

"...from the experience of a grass-type, I can tell you that doesn't work, maybe now I am a bit tired from all this running, but usually I am quite fine. I don't feel that my mind it weaker or anything" I continued as if I couldn't even hear her. "Where is the cave?"

"Right behind you," she said. I turned not really believing her but the cave really was there. Were we really running all this way back?

I took the stone and walked to the cave but Agaar still had something to say.

"Watch out leafeon, you are too far out of your kind's normal, being able to follow a dark-type in the night is not a kind of luck or a good eye. I am watching you," she said in a low tone and went into the far forest.

I couldn't understand what she meant, out of the standard of my kind? Was I fat? Maybe I wasn't the fittest eeveelution in the pack but fat? Absolutely not! I could compete with espeons! I mean, fit espeons, obviously.

I curled on the stone ground and tried to sleep but irritating thoughts that maybe I should go run some more, that if one pokemon can see me 'out of standard' than maybe others can see too, they kept me awake until today's efforts overcame my thoughts.

I woke up still tired, I hated when that happened, why I was waking up when I still wanted to sleep? Why did my brain decide to break the dream and now demanding it back? It didn't make any sense!

Although I was tired, I couldn't fall asleep again, so I lifted my eyelids. It was still night but it was brighter than before. I lifted myself up and walked to the exit, there was some weak yellow glow around, guess it was before sunrise. It wasn't.

The sky was still filled with stars and the moon shone brightly. It was so silent around, there was no memory of how many things happened on the same night. Just darkness and silence, and according to Agaar I should be afraid of it. Why? Was there something wrong with that? Was it what she called 'out of standard'? And maybe it was, other grass-types even slept with light so maybe they were really afraid of the dark? Maybe I just got used to it, having these and not other friends in my younger years. I was spending the same amount of time during the day and in the night so maybe I didn't mind about the time of day. But still, I couldn't understand why others could be afraid of night, why they should be afraid of something that was happening so regularly and was unable to avoid.

'Out of standard', it could be why I didn't understand them. Funny, I was looking for grass-type to learn something that I could use, yet when I found them by accident I allied with some absol against them and stole... something, I wasn't even sure what it was.

The weak yellow glow disappeared, replaced by white one, one which I was much more familiar with. It was my white side of leaves which sometimes decided to give some light around, another thing I should finally find an answer to but there was no one to question about it. The glow was actually false, it couldn't light up the cave or anything, all that it could do was reflect other light, now the moonlight.

I put my tail and ears flat with the white sides down and the reflected light disappeared. Maybe if I befriend Agaar a bit more than she may give me some answers, she seemed to be quite knowledgeable, which was also untypical. How could she know what was normal and what wasn't for leafeon? She didn't seem old but vast knowledge was expected, rather, from those whose life was already done and on who the first grey fur appeared. Actually, her colourisation sometimes seemed grey but I wouldn't give her many more years than I had, calculating it at a different time of our species limit of time. So maybe there was a thing. If I had those seven winters behind me, she could have, for example, thirty but being mature as I was, it would mean she would change by four years for every one year I did. That was very unfair. But from the second hand, she was wasting a lot of her time on some deals, fights and generally, she didn't look very much like she was enjoying her time around.

Thoughts of non-existence always made my heart feel heavy, yet I was rather trying to understand them than reacting with fear.

There were few theories about what was happening after we used all of our time but I never liked when someone was telling me what will happen not showing anything particular so I quickly create my own theories and guesses. Starting from very basic of what could be happening I got stuck on my first question, was it really something to thought about? Maybe our imagination just couldn't accept that there was absolutely nothing, just the end of being, without a singing chorus, ancestors, prices or punishments. Just nothing, and I wouldn't even know that because there won't be self-consciousness or something that could be left from it.

Yeah, it was hard to imagine, if I wanted to see nothing, I saw darkness, but darkness could be lit up and become something so it couldn't symbolise complete end. Yet I still tried to imagine nothingness, it was like forcing through the kind of blockade in my mind. This fight was always ending in one way, I established that I couldn't imagine something that I couldn't see. But could absolute nothingness even exist by itself or was its existence limited to the word 'nothingness'? A place, a thing or maybe a creature, whatever it was, a symbol of non-existence should not exist by what it was symbolising just like what the thing it was symbolising.

Maybe just imaginative tales of others' theories was just easier? It was an escape from the weight of self-fragility, self-uncoupledness and self-inconsistency.

The sun started to rise from the horizon, the glow of dawn was intensifying and the red sun appeared above the highest trees' tops, increasing temperature. With the dawn, Agaar arrived in her typical grumpy expression put between stroked white fur which seemed to lay on her without any condition or composition, only the horn and tail was marking there where was front and back of the absol. However, she somehow managed to look proud and majestic like that. Not incredibly majestic but still enough to not be mistaken with the heap of snow. I didn't take notice earlier but she looked as if she had never even heard that long fur should be, from time to time, not only cleaned but also well-groomed. Otherwise, it would stand into many different ways and look just like Agaar's fur looked right now. Mine was short so I didn't need to work around it, since it wouldn't be really visible, but she should for sure. Nonetheless, it won't be me who would have to say this to her.

"Now, you not, sleep yes." Was all that she said sounding already half asleep, she passed me and went into the cave. Then it struck me: if she was nocturnal and I prefer a day than how we supposed to travel together? I already could guess that she would force me to stay awake during the night to walk but I couldn't miss a day, maybe one or two I could but for more, I would die from hunger or my leaves would become all broken. So far it looked that it will be a very exhausting trip.

Hoping that her rest wouldn't be long, I stayed in the sun for some photosynthesis, making myself feel a bit stronger.

At late noon as I was lying in the grass, my companion walked out of the cave, but she wasn't looking rested, more like a lunatic which was just a step from becoming an astral existence or from falling flat on its head and stuffing its mouth with green, just like Agaar did it right now.

"I also don't like when I wake up too early," I shot as Agaar was spewing fallen leaves and some of the dirt. I wasn't sure if it was a rule but from my observation on Segre, I could say that nocturnal dark-types often had lack of sleep. My guess was that it was hard to sleep while it was bright outside and the days never were as silent as the nights.

"I never get used to it," Agaar said under her breath, confusing me a little if she meant me, making comment or actual waking up, maybe both.

I hadn't many chances to have a lazy morning, it was one of those occasions. Not being waking up by anyone, hadn't anything to do, just lying on the unbelievable comfortable grass, napping. Every time at mornings a place where I was lying was becoming suddenly the most comfortable place I knew, even if it was the same place where I couldn't fall asleep after sundown.

And everything would be fine, but there was still one fact, a thought, it wasn't home, and I had a lot to do. Because of it I wasn't resting but staring at Agaar, waiting until she would be able to do whatever she still had to do in this area and finally move out. Before that happened I felt that I was only wasting my time, thinking where we could already be if we wouldn't procrastinating our departure.

Agaar, however, absolutely wasn't in any hurry, she was moving lazily, cleaning her claws and sharpening her horn, what I assumed were usual things that absols did after they woke up. After she hadn't anything more of what was dirty to clean out or dull to be sharpened, she started stretching. Even if I couldn't complain about it, I wished it would be Cera or Navia, it would be much more pleasing to watch.

Denying her back legs in the ground the lowered her hips to the ground and pushed with front legs up, tilting her head back and staying like that for a moment. Agaar slowly returned to the normal position but didn't stop, now lowering her head and chest to the ground and... oh, wow.

* * *

"Is it far?" I asked as the absol was leading to the meeting point, where we had to give the no-longer-glowing stone carried on my tail to somebody who Agaar supposedly knew.

"No, it's not. But during this meeting, don't talk, generally, act like some stupid plant, don't even show that you understand what others are talking," said Agaar, stopping in place and standing for a moment on her hind legs to look over the undergrowth. "Arcanines, magmar and braixen, well until braixen isn't very skilful in psychic it shouldn't be any problems."

"Okay, but why?"

"First, on this meeting, you are my slave, following my orders and imitating fear. It's just for show and to avoid stupid questions. Remember that fire-types burn pure hatred to your type and don't know that you are able, for example, to talk or different thing typical for living creatures and there is no reason to let them find out that they are wrong. We just need to use their stupidity and give them the grass type of their imagination," explained Agaar and smirked. "Whenever I go the number of idiots doesn't change, how it possible?"

"There is not really that many idiots, they are just placed like that you always must to find one." It was a rather rhetorical question, but I answered it anyway. I found it funny how Agaar thought, since her first expression was like: 'Are you able to talk?' and now she laughed from pokemon who thought just like she thought two days before. Was it making Agaar one of those perfectly placed idiots? I smiled to myself but the absol didn't notice anything.

It appeared that behind the undergrowth was starting part of the burned-to-the-ground forest, four other pokemon were already waiting for us there. Two of them were huge canines, standing a distance behind the main group of two-legged pokemon. Reminded of what my role was, I tried to look poor, just like someone who would have been threatened and in fear of itself life, I flattered my ears and started to walk somehow bent-over. I also considered pulling my tail between legs, but it would make it hard to walk, it wasn't some small straight tail but a large solar platform. It also would use some attention since the number of small damages at my leaf's edges lately grew in number, making it look jagged. But on another hand, wasn't it making me look more virile?

While I was pinning my eyes onto the ground avoiding any contact possible, we approached the group and I could guess that they were glaring at me.

"You, I know," I heard the magmar speaking, he had a sore throat, that for sure was illness and was already quite well-developed judging from his voice. There was no chance that it would heal without help. "But what is 'this' and why it that here?"

"I tamed him," Agaar answered sharply, but not in an offence tone. "I have this."

"Show it," a different voice said, this one voice sounded too young to be sure if it was female or male, I ascribed it to braixen. I wondered what age he or she could be. I could only guess how long this species used to live, I only hoped that my species isn't one of these with the shortest life.

"You are four and I am only one, you need to do your part first. Cabbage doesn't matter, he wouldn't be able to do anything anyway," said Agaar.

 _Cabbage? Oh, Agaar someday I will pay you back for that_. I didn't like, I hate when someone calls me a plant. It's the easiest way to piss me off and and... I really would like to hit something hard to damp down this anger.

"First I need to check if it's a real one, hope you don't expect that we would trust the word of a dark-type and we just check it now," said braixen. Agaar stayed silent for a moment.

"Give it to them," she finally said and I, in pretended, hurry jogged to the braixen and pushed the stone into his extended paws, then I quickly returned and stood behind Agaar. I stood in a way so she was covering me from the eyes of fire-types and I could watch over the absol's shoulder. The magmar was ceaselessly rubbing his throat while the braixen was looking at the stone as if he was trying to make a hole in it just by staring at it.

"It is it," braixen confirmed after a while. "How were you able to get it?"

"Don't ask stupid questions son," chastened him magmar. "You are forbidden absol. Now go away."

The meeting was over, we could go back to the forest.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Nothing, I pissed off someone too powerful and had to do a suicidal mission, you were helpful. Good for both of us that this one time I listened to the brain, instead of the stomach."


	8. Ch8 'Crossroads'

Chapter 8 "Crossroads"

* * *

"We're going far, we're going far, and there is no one who may stop us now. And when you think this night going to end, let sing with me once agaaaain..."

"AH! Please stop!" angry Agaar once again disturbed my vocal singing and for the moment I was silently following her through the forest at morning when the dew had already appeared, making me feel fresh and ready for everything. It was also making the artist part of my soul feel the rhythm when it wasn't done yet. But I decided to try at least something slower so that grumpy pokemon may like it.

"His eyes were not blind still he could not see a danger deep inside of me. You could not stop, you couldn't feel..."

"I promised to bring your leafy ass to your home but if you won't stop singing I will bring it dead!" she screamed at me and I would even try one more like 'See the lighting in your eyes, see them running for their lives' but decided against it.

"Okay, I will be silent, 'I will slice and kill everyone'" I answered, with faked gentleness.

"You are really asking for something horrible," she barked back. Not seeing any sense in continuing it, I stayed silent and focused just on walking. Anyway, these songs sounded better when they were sung after drinking some of this funny tasting juice which a brother of a cousin of a grandfather of a nephew of stepdaughter of Serge's friend was making from time to time to add some charm to umbreon's night duties, on which Serge took me with him few times. Saying simply, it was much easier to sing being wack.

"Also, we just started our journey, and you sing as if we were walking for months." the annoyed absol returned to the conversation closed by herself.

"It is a rare occasion," I said admiring how forests could look different in different parts of the world. It was the same trees bushes ground and dirt, leaves had known to me shade of green, grass known length yet it wasn't the same plant I saw before. It was amazing how the environment could achieve different forms still being built by the same elements.

"You need to really like your home if you are trying so much to go there," she stated, and my eyes went from one perfectly shaped and green leaf to her, she wasn't looking at me but forward.

"Of course! I love my pack; it's the best place to be! Maybe Sogot sometimes gets on my nerves, but it wasn't happening very often," I exclaimed.

"Sogot?" Absol asked.

"The current leader of the pack, but if you would ever meet him you would need to call him Sogot the Bushyflame.

After hearing his full name, Agaar snorted with laughter.

"Hah! How can someone with a name like that be a leader? Or is it a title? Haha, you eeveelutions really don't like to take things seriously," Agaar laughed, making me frown.

"He got this title by the way he fights," I explained. "Before him, it was Azor the Duskeye, my grandfather."

"Was he blind to achieve a title like that?" asked the dark-type, seemingly looking for another thing to laugh about, yet it didn't deter me from answering. I was proud of my origins and ancestor, and liked to say a word or two about it.

"No, he was an umbreon and when he got really angry his left eye was overwhelmed by dark flame. I heard tales that there were cases when even his bravest opponents fell to the ground, curled up and cried seeing that," I said, remembering the tale which I heard long ago from my own parents.

"It's too unbelievable to be true but it's reminding me of a dark move, so it isn't impossible," said Agaar, losing her girding tone and her thought drifted somewhere far away, causing silence.

"And what about you leafeon? Do you have any title?" she questioned, breaking the silence.

"Me? No, titles are only for important ones. I am just Zar," I said, embarrassed.

"Being the grandchild of the leader doesn't make you an important one, Zar?" she asked, but quickly added."Wait, if he was your grandfather and since in two generations the leader changed only once, then at what age can you... umm reproduce?"

"In theory, at four, in practice, pairing starts at six. He died long ago but the leader changed only once, not because we are eh, making things early, but because Sogot lives incredibly long. He was a domestic pokemon earlier." I explained sheepishly.

"Medicine and proper feeding can really make life longer," Agaar said, but more to herself than to me.

"Medicine?" I repeated a new heard word.

"Pils, vaccinations, syrups, toiletries, artificial made or natural, it helps to cure illnesses, prove better development or just give some pleasure. I still miss headache pills."

"Pils? Toiletries? Vaccinations? What are you talking about?" Her explanation only confused me even more. Agaar smiled awkwardly and chuckled.

"Doesn't matter." Was all I heard before another part of walking in silence. Headache tablets? Maybe was it kind of nuts? Some hard ones would cause a headache to anyone who may try to eat them? But why she was missing them then? Were they really so good that a headache was worth trying them?

"What about your home?" I asked, I wasn't expecting her to miss it, actually she didn't look like someone who could be lost.

"I left it behind," she answered.

"Is it typical of your kind or did you have some dream to fulfil?"

"I didn't belong to this home so I left it, I thought differently and was obsessed with the world behind the walls of everyday life."

"So, were you a domestic pokemon?" I asked but didn't think that she could be domestic; she seemed to be wilder than me so she couldn't be.

"I was never caught," she said and I caught raising irritation, so I thought to stay silent for now. However, she didn't answer the question. I didn't ask further and focused on just walking.

When I lifted my eyes up again, I noticed that the environment hadn't changed much and the horizon was still showing the same view. As time was passing and as the afternoon started to change to evening, the absol was showing more and more energy. She sped up, her eye was more focused and instead of, expected by me, the ennui of a long road she was more and more energised. I was an opposition, I thought that the problem of day and night, despite earlier confidence, wasn't solved. It was still a lot of time before nightfall and we supposed to walk during the night, too, but I already felt that I wouldn't be able to.

* * *

I was a pokemon of action, I couldn't just walk silently and monotonously with a monotone environment and monotone thoughts.

 _Step, step, step._

Paw after paw, a silent patter of my small claws in a place where the ground was harder and shuffle where it was more grassy. Answering me was similar one coming from under Agaar's legs but in a different rhythm, her long claws were grasping the ground and larger paws were stamping the ground leaving a visible mark on the ground, completely different to my narrow and almost invisible mark. Also when Agaar was going through the grass, she was leaving a path of flattened plants, while after me they were standing up as if no one ever walked there.

 _Step, step, step. Front-right, back-left, front-left, back-right._

Certainly, nature was at my side. Also, I noticed that I outran her at listening, which wasn't much surprise. At first look, I wasn't even sure if she has ears.

 _Step, step, step._

Was she wondering something or like me, was she counting steps? I never could grasp how others could just be next to someone and keep silence. Were they just like me wondering how to start a conversation and then why they kept silent or were they just busy with something? Being in a company of yourself wasn't bad but when there was someone next to you then he shouldn't be ignored. That's how I felt, ignored.

 _Step, step, step._

Ignored by one who kept dragging this ignorance, behind the one who spread this ignorance, making this ignorance to exist longer but I didn't have another option. I couldn't walk a different path avoiding the feeling of ignorance, since if I could, I would try to meet with Agaar somewhere on this road, putting this ignorance aside, but I couldn't. I didn't know where we were going, or did I know? To my pack, the destination was clear, but where were we going now, or the question should be what were we planning to go through to meet my pack?

 _Step, step, step_

"So where are we going?" I didn't manage to stay silent any longer.

"I thought that you knew where you want to go."

"Yeah, but until we reach my home, we would need to go through something right?"

"We will go through 'The Path of the Dying', it's a shortcut," she answered carelessly.

"That doesn't sound encouraging," I marked, not too happy, also a bit regretting that I asked.

"It's also called 'Hangman's Forest' or 'Whisper-fog Ground', it a pretty but dark forest around the single mountain, it's quite dense, and there is also a lake." It wasn't convincing me.

"If it is so great a place then why it named like that?" I asked.

"It's because of the legend, there was a humans village there, long ago, one day everyone disappeared. You probably can guess how the wild pokemon reacted. They started exploring what left, and it's when the legend starts because no one knows what these pokemon found since they disappeared too. 'Because some places shouldn't be found' that's what you hear if you would ask someone who may know something about this place. Supposedly, so many died there that Death stayed there forever and kept mimicking the voices of those who he met."

"Wouldn't it be better, then, to avoid this place?" I asked, already not wanting to go there.

"Are you kidding? Going around would take days and I don't believe in the legend. I am a dark-type; I am supposed to be the one who scares others, not the one who shake in fear. It's probably nothing more than a few ghost-types who just played with someone's dreams."

Legends always have a truth in them, that's why they existed and that is how they were started. From the spark of truth and the more believed, the bigger the flame was. However, the brighter the flame got the harder it was to see what was true in it. What if, behind this on legend, was standing something much more horrible than pokemon, though. My pack also had a legend, about a grey-eyed eeveelution, the certain type changed depending who was talking about it. This legend had one less popular part, this mighty eeveelution had a descendant, and he or she was in our pack. Some says that Azor, our earlier leader was this descendant, since according to legend, the one who had the blood of grey-eyed showed untypical abilities.

And I wouldn't really care about it, if not for the fact that newly born eevees were always checked by some espeon to find if they had anything 'different'. Thought that, if not Cera, I wouldn't know about it too.

"What about the second name? Whisper-fog was it?" I asked.

"Did I mention that there is a lake in that forest? Yeah, so naturally there is also fog. Some pokemon keep saying that it is possible to lose your mind in this fog and that you can hear voices of those who have died. It's bullshit, obviously, caused rather by this that someone rather wanted to hear something than they really heard. It's just pumped sensation, nothing real," she said and looked at me. "Uh, you really look scared. If it calms you down, I can say that I was there before and nothing special happened." I wouldn't say that I had a peaceful state of mind right now, but I wasn't shivering, or was I?

"Really?"

"Yes, and I can say that none of any of this is true, I didn't find the abandoned humans' settlement, whispering fog or hanging bodies. It is just a forest of a specific climate, maybe that's why others say fake stories about it." Maybe I was really overthinking it? Maybe it was really nothing to worry about.

As I felt calmer, a thought made a mess in my mind again. What if Agaar didn't find anything because if she would find, she would be too scared to go back to the forest? And now she would drag me with her there. Why should I even trust her or anyone here in the wilderness? She wasn't my species and all I knew was a name, Agaar, which wasn't even a real one.

Another more ridiculous thought was that this absol saw what she should to guide someone in this forest but it was too unreal to have even a chance to be true. Maybe my mind liked to be scared if it was giving me such thoughts?

"Well, Agaar, you learned few things about me," I started closing an of bit distance to walk side by side and not talk to her back.

"Yes, I did," she answered, a bit bored.

"Don't you want to say a bit more about yourself?" I asked, but tried to not sound like I was pushing her. It was a typical mistake in relations with dark-types.

"No," she answered freely on the not pledging question. Typical dark-type, 'I don't need to do something so I am not going to do it'. How could I forget how to act with dark-types? Didn't I spend enough time with umbreon to know how to ask to get a real answer?

I made my leaves to produce small dizzying mist around us, considering that absols hadn't better smell or eyes than umbreon she shouldn't notice anything and if she did then I would need to improvise with some fast explanation.

"Name at least?" I continued, now with a tone suggesting that I didn't want to hear 'No'. She didn't answer immediately, as if she had to chew the words in her mouth before throwing them out.

"I told you mine, be fair," I tried to help her with her decision, but I already could see that the small help from my leaves was making an effect. Funny how practised and how effective this move was. I wondered if I would increase it, I would put pokemon around me to sleep as I was sometimes doing or would it be possible to get high and have kind of control over the other pokemon. I decided to try it later, maybe on someone who would be resistive to it so I would make any unwanted harm.

"Before I tell you there is one condition: don't use it when there is someone around."

"Why? What is the sense of having a name which you can't use?"

"My, and apparently your species too, are not very common, because of it, it is hard to recognise us by most of the other pokemon so using different names not only frees me from every problem which you could have with someone, but also make it looks like there are much more absols around, not only one which can be simply killed and there won't be anyone who may give consequences for doing it," she explained telling it a bit unclearly, probably the daze I gave her affected her speech too.

"Okay, it's acceptable," I agreed. Maybe should I also use different names? But no one knew or shouldn't know me outside of the pack so it should be fine going as 'Zar'. Also, I hadn't immunity to psychic and others frills of this kind, so someone could notice that I am trying to lie.

"Sonya."

"What?" I asked tore away from my thoughts.

"The name, Sonya, that's my name," she repeated.

"Oh, okay, that's a nice name, Sonya, sounds better than Agaar, that's for sure," I said. At least I didn't need to keep breaking my tongue trying to say her name any longer. "Do you think that I should use another name too?"

"It won't work," she negated my idea almost instantly. "I, just like others, won't recognise one leafeon from another but your specific colourisation makes it much easier. I doubt that there is a second leafeon with white leaves."

"Soon I will become red and brown, so it won't be so visible," I informed, stumbling over some rocks hidden in the grass. I hissed at the sudden pain in my fingers but kept walking without hobbling.

"Really you change colour for the fall? And what about the winter and spring?" she asked, weirdly excited.

"At spring I am green again, maybe a bit brighter green than I have now but in winter... well it's hard to name," I answered stopping exhaling my mist a bit afraid of her changes of mood.

"What you mean by hard to name?" she pushed me.

"I don't know how to name this colour, grey or silver but at the same time any of it. Though it's quite good camouflage in the heaps of snow," I remembered.

The wall of trees that was surprising ended, leaving only the empty flat field of short grass ahead. I automatically stopped, I had nothing against clearings, but the size of this one was astonishing. The grass looked like the sheet of a lake moving in the blows of the wind, spreading far to the horizon where the forest was continuing and where the single U-shaped mountain made of black rock was, like a claw scratching the sky.

"That is the Foreground, quite impressive even for non-grass-types," Sonya said seeing my stare. "The mountain and the forest around it, it's the forest we were talking about."

Suddenly the forest and mountain seemed, to me, no longer beautiful. Two mountains' peaks looked sharp, and their black colour seemed to mask every detail of the mountainside.

Sonya continued the walk into the clearing while I still was looking afar but I joined her shortly after.

The ground here was a bit moist, flowers were rare and only small blooms were pending from the ocean of grass, the much more interesting view was above us. Standing in the open field, the sky seemed more beautiful than any time earlier, perfectly blue with clouds like scratches or leaves floating on the sheet of a blue pond. It was a different sky than what I saw above my home every day, when I was walking out of my den or during my naps at my small field where I supposed to work, different than the sky above which I met Agaar..., Sonya. Different, and yet the same blue sky.

 _Another sky to admire, another sky to remember and another sky to leave behind._

"See those two to your right?" asked Sonia. I rapidly looked right afraid that I didn't hear anyone coming but I didn't see anyone there. "In the sky, those black dots," she added pointing the direction with a nose. I followed her guide and saw what she was talking about but it wasn't just a black dot. Both of them were avian creature flapping its two wings covered by blue feathers.

"It's rather kind of blue than black," I said, looking at pokemon.

"How you see colour from that distance?" asked Sonia, lowering her tone, being suspicious about my vision.

"I am just not blind," I shot back and she smirked silently repeating 'blind' and mumbling one more word but I didn't catch what it was.

"Anyway, if they are blue, it's probably a pair of swellows. They are flying here and will tell similar stuff I told you about this forest and order to avoid it," Sonia said. "They are quite an irritating and aggressive pair."

"Will they attack us?" I asked worried about a confrontation with the unknown enemy. Flying pokemon weren't a complete mystery to me but I had never met any before.

"I wish for it; I haven't eaten anything since this morning," Sonia said dreamily. "No, I doubt that they will even get close enough to be reached. Don't worry, if they are able to fly, they need to be light, and when they are light, then their body are going to be very easy to break.

"They don't stand a chance fighting us, quadruped born pure blooded, better build. But I guess that's me talking to you about adaptation would be the waste of time, in the end, you are an eeveelution here."

"Back in my home, trees were mostly short and easy to climb up. Even if there were days when some flying pokemon were living there, they needed to be all hunted down. The pack is big and no one would like to be hungry, because of it everything that is out of communication class goes for food," I said though she should already know it. Maybe absols didn't like to be in such big groups but she was a hunter by herself. But from another paw, she may not know the situation in the pack, she never was there. I doubt that any non-eeveelution was there.

"Communication class? And that means...?" asked Sonia, waiting for me to end her sentence.

"Heh, generally it's not called like that, I just didn't know how to say it in one word," I answered. "I mean pokemon 'not for eating' like... like.. absol, like absol for example," I think so, who may know what umbreons are hunting in their depressed and bloodthirst state or overcharged crazy jolteons. "Those with whom we can normally speak because of similarities of size, build and strength and those which eating would be just not right."

"You mean 'intelligent' ones?" Sonia helped with a suggestion. "So let's take for example: ratata..."

"It's wrong example," I cut her.

"Why? It's in size of the eevee...

"Eevees don't hunt, they are too clumsy and too small to deal with the world," I explained.

"Okay but it is intelligent pokemon," she insisted on her example.

"We don't consider it as intelligent," I answered stepping in some small puddle. With a grumble, I shook my paw and continued walking.

"It can talk."

"Sonya, you are talking as if you would never hunt while even I have few preys on my account, nothing to be proud of but still something," I said, I wasn't in a mood for explaining such simple things also I couldn't find myself in a role of a teacher.

"I am just trying to learn how you are explaining it to yourself, I only tell apart competition as other absols, these from whom I can gain something, these I owe something and the rest is just a lump of meat."

"Okay, then we don't think that ability to talk makes you intelligent, but self-awareness and those who we consider have lower self-awareness end as food," I said trying to close the theme.

"That's a really comfortable and very easy way to eliminate species you may not like. Just by a sudden change of your consideration," the absol smirked.

"And what can I say? I told you how it looks in general but no one is checking what hungry eeveelution found itself to eat. We are not some specialised fighters to hunt powerful pokemon, just those which are easy to find and easy to catch. Just to move forward without making anything to regret." I exhaled with slight frustration. Hunting wasn't my thing, I didn't know much about it, so I didn't want to explain it acting like an expert. My knowledge was limited to my three first hunts, which rather were controlled lessons instead of real hunts, and few times I went on a hunt with Serge but he was hunting and I was only assisting as a company. Going after something that is escaping and catching it was always great fun from the youngest age and I found it funny even today but I was lazy, guess everyone is a bit lazy. But everyone in the pack had a great motivator in the form of hunger, my motivation was strong enough to make me move enough to walk in the sun, eventually for water.

Maybe it was the reason why I fell so far behind after evolution? I hadn't the motivation to work on myself. While everyone was using their advantages to overcome their disadvantages, they were also becoming better. I didn't need to do it.

Perfect adaptation? For living in a large group, without the worry of eventual danger, yes. In general, no. Falling in self-pride was wrong and could lead me to become a person I didn't like to be. Considering that I like me as current me. Current meant, right now, walking with a slowly opening up absol trying my hardest to be nice and with a goal before eyes. However, I didn't like my morning me.

I always had problems waking up in the morning, delaying standing up over and over again until midday when the ground under me lost its comfort and became just ground, hard and flat ground. Standing up lately caused that, I completely didn't feel rested and thought only about sleeping for the rest of the day. But when the night finally came, I was energized as a jolteon. Having fun till the late night, almost morning, with a bunch of umbreons, I felt great. I didn't have such great relations with any other type other than dark-type. I never wanted to consider types as different groups, but with them, I felt some connection. Maybe I really missed my evolution?

Destiny, sometimes I wondered if it really existed. An invisible power that makes us move in specific directions. Every time I think about it, I come to the conclusion that I and only I control the way I am doing, what I think and where I go. However, sometimes it was a bit weird how complication of events turned out. For example, a complication of me who got lost in the rain, fall into the river and almost get killed by an absol. Now it sounded like begging to some tale, very typical and easy to predict tale. Because isn't it a very repetitive scheme when the main character suddenly finds themselves in unknown surroundings and tries to deal with it?

Maybe repetitive, but I still liked stories like that. Through it always depended on who was telling the story, since even the best plot told in a boring way was boring. I think that every cub that lives in place of the pack has the willingness to learn about things we don't see, what is behind the horizon, to check if everywhere the sky looks the same. However, with age, this willingness disappeared. It was something that I wished I could feel again.

Thinking deeply, I picked a longer green twig from the field of grass just to have something to gnaw on. The gnawed part of the twig I was spewing out, maybe I change type with evolution, but not the species. I was still a carnivore, just with an addition in the form of leaves able to catch solar energy, so a green stick wasn't edible for me.

However, the twig caused me to lose what I was thinking about. Just a short distraction and I was able to completely forget the thought. I sighed heavily, getting a quick glance from Sonya, and looked once again in the sky.

The two pokemon were still flying toward us, but were still far away. However, were much harder to notice because of the blurry mist. The fog started to rise. I barely noticed it, but the closer to the dark forest we were, the shorter my vision was. The ground was getting wetter to the point where Sonya's large paws were loudly splashing the water, pressing it out of the grass. I was a bit afraid to mention it aloud, that the width of her species' paws was astonishing.

I was so bad. I thought. I comment her as if I haven't had any oversized part of my own. She hadn't even visible ears; mine must have looked colossal to her.

The coldness increased and the wet ground made me lose temperature even faster. I folded tail and other my half-leaves to my back to help myself save warmth. I heard something cracking under my paws.

I looked down, the thing I broke was ice, single long and narrow strip of ice.

Wasn't it a bit too warm for ice? Trees didn't even lose their leaves, or mine didn't even start to change their colour, but here, in the middle of a sunny but swampy and foggy field was a piece of ice. Yeah, it cooled, but not to the point of freezing. I looked up and saw that Sonya also was glancing at the frozen grass with a frown on her face.

"Prick up your ears," she said. "The ice is almost completely melted, so it's been here a while, or it was just an ice-type who caught a cold and accidentally sneezed on the ground or someone finally claimed this territory. Terrible choice, finding food here is hard and it's rare that someone would come here."

I didn't agree with her; the scent of the owner of the ice should be here even long after it melted, yet I didn't feel anything. But I didn't say anything, she had been here before, so maybe she knew better. We kept walking, but it wasn't carelessness walking as before. The fog tensed, lowering temperature, even more, closing us in the whiteness. I focused on keeping a short distance with the absol, Sonya looked like just another white cloud of fog.

On the ground were spreading, like a lazily lying root, ridges of mist. Fulfilling every cavity and depression on the ground making them look like puddles of milk. The fog was overwhelming us, and every move we made was disturbing its calm.

I didn't know when we entered the forest. The first tree appeared from nothing, emerging from the fog just in front of us. Shortly after appearing, it wasn't the edge of the forest, we just missed when we entered the forest.

Barely visible overgrowth was like shadow or blur. The forest was thick and the path very narrow, Sonya walking first needed a few times to clean the way with claws and horn. The plants were very resistant, I would say, unnaturally resistant to the sharp tools of my absol. Thicker branches weren't even possible to cut. Sonya's horn was overwhelmed in a black flame of dark energy, sparks were flying but the one branch that was going across our way stayed unaffected as if joking from our efforts. That what at the beginning seemed to be great fun for absol, changed into frustration, unimaginable anger and the long sequence of curses with breaks of fury horn and claws attacks.

Anger, however, seemed to make Sonya's covered in darkness blades stronger. I knew that emotions, especially these wrong ones, had strong effects on the actions of dark types, but I never had a chance to see it alive. Guess that Serge had too much experience to lose his control near me.

It wasn't possible to live in the forest like this, in a typical forest you don't have any problems with walking around. Maybe sometimes you need to go around something or go through some bushes but there are no situations when you can't move at all because the thickness of the overgrowth makes it impassable. Still, I hoped that we were just unlucky; there was only a small part of the forest which looked like that, and we just walked into that part.

On another paw, Sonya's opinion about this forest changed from 'specific climate' to the fucking stinky snorlax's shit in the middle of place described by another unknown to me terms. She was a bit boring with her character, I mean, there was a lot of ways to express what she had in mind. Yet, she has always been using the same repetitive way.

These plants seemed to be dead; they weren't leafed, had deep dark colour and looked dry. Only looked since they weren't fragile at all.

And they weren't 'talking'.

Just silence, I didn't learn what these plants are, what they do or what they need, just silence, wordless than a gnawed stick.

*Crack*

I snapped out and noticed the funny scene before me. Sonya, who was all the time trying to cut the branch, finally managed to thrust her horn into the wood but didn't cut it, instead blade stuck in the branch being there despite every effort the absol put in attempts to pull it out. At least she was quiet now, busy with heavy breathing and noises of moaning.

It took a while of scuffling with the branch before Sonya's strength went away and she stood in place, still trapped but much calmer now. She started to try to pull the blade out not by force but by a combination of short jerks. When this method failed too, she moved her attention to me and I found myself just looking at her this whole time with a stupid smile on my face.

"Maybe you could do something useful today?" she asked and even if she seemed to be calm now I could judge from her voice that eruption can happen at any moment. Though I kept staring, as nothing came to my mind that I could do to help. Best I could do was trying to pull her by her tail, granted that it won't just cut my muzzle.

"Okay," I answered. Despite the lack of ideas, I walked closer and wedged myself between her head and the branch. Leaning my back of the branch, I pushed Sonya's head away.

There was another crack and both of us fall to the ground. I got up first, Sonya was free and there was a large mark left in the wood from which was dripping dense crimson liquid. I frowned and wanted to inspect it but before I could do it, Sonya in all mighty ran at the branch which, already damaged, didn't stand her and broke in two. When all smaller shoots attached to the branch fall to the ground our way become clear as it was the end of thick bushes.

Before us was spreading, as far the fog allowed me to see, the forest. Dark, with thin but tall trees, the ground covered in numerous mosses, slowly rising to the mountain, forest. My companion was still dizzy after the hit and was now sitting, trying to come back to full consciousness, finally shaking her head and standing up. It reminded me of the situations from stories when someone hit something with its head and lost memory, nonsense but always an interesting concept.

Sonya finally stood up and looked around, her horn was covered in a deep crimson colour.

"You're bleeding!" I asked or stated, I wasn't sure, I jumped to her to help but she made a step back.

"Hold on for a second. Where am I supposed to bleed?" she asked. Maybe her confusion hadn't pass yet, and she couldn't feel the pain. With Sonya keeping her distance I couldn't see the wound by itself but judging from the dripping blood from the side of her blade it needed to be a big gash.

"From your..." horn? Wasn't it supposed to be a bone? But what was my experience with horns? Maybe they can even bleed being bare bone? But in that case, it would cause pain everytime she would use it and she was using it quite a lot. So maybe a place where the horn is attached to the head? No, now I was just stupid, just like fangs don't bite their own throat, that horn shouldn't be able to damage her head just by running into something! If it would work like that then any absol wouldn't survive its first month! "... head?" I said not sure anymore.

Sonya cooked her head a bit and quickly checked her head with the top side of her paw, not seeing any blood on it she glanced at me again losing some of her calm moods.

"There is blood on your horn," I said in my defence, so she checked her horn. Now her paw was in blood too, yet she repeated her look of annoyance.

"What?" I asked, did she blackout so much that she couldn't see this deep red colour on her pure white paw or it was about something different?

"I am not bleeding, there is no blood on my horn," she said. "I thought that was me who hit the tree with its head, did some part of it flew at you?"

 _What?_

"Uh, no? No! For sure no," I disclaimed.

"No, or you just don't remember? It sometimes happens when you hit something with your head," said absol keeping her point.

I examined her horn once again very carefully, but I just saw what I saw before. Deep crimson colour, just with a difference that it stopped dripping on the ground. But it still wasn't her natural dark-blue, I was more than sure that it wasn't!

But really was I? In all this fog, I lost all sense of time and it could already be dusk or close to it. I may be tired, and my bad night vision could start to trick me.

"Maybe I am just tired," I suggested resigned.

"Most likely but it's not a place where we can walk being tired. Come one my hallucinating medic, let's find a place for a break," Sonya said choosing a way.

"Medic? What does that mean?" I asked, still following.

"It doesn't matter, now less talking more walking."


	9. Ch9 Mist walk

_The hell is inside of us, we drag it behind._

Somehow this one wayward thought intruded my mind and kept disturbing me from thinking about anything different.

We hadn't a break yet and I wasn't sure if Sonya really planed one. We just kept walking, over and over, and any passed place wasn't good enough to stay there. In addition to it: my vision didn't get better I would say that it got even worse. I had a feeling that everything was getting redder, crimson colour kept covering space out of the corner of my eye just do disappear when I tried to focus on it and appear again somewhere where I wasn't actually looking. Maybe I was really tired? But I didn't feel so, my paws hurt a bit from walking and spine felt heavy but I wasn't gasping for air and it wasn't the hardest effort of my life. My first training hunt trip was more exhausting, later ones with Serge, even more. They contained a lot of running, hiding, seeking and tracking being all the time rushed by the overjoyed umbreon, or a bunch of them. I never managed to outrun them and always was in the last position but I also didn't need to be first, I wasn't following hunger.

When our path disappeared in completely dark water of the lake, Sonya stopped and decided that here we could make a break, taking by herself a spot not to close to the water, between roots of the old tree which looked much more natural than the extremely endurable plants we met earlier. Or maybe was it one burned mark on the bark of the tree, that looked similar to those which jolteons could leave thundering the tree by mistake, was making these tree looking more natural for me.

Before laying down by myself I walked to the water and watered my mouth creating small disturbances on the calm water sheet that spread in every direction and with it, the fog above the lake backed off allowing me to see opposite bank.

That lake wasn't that big, I thought. I was about to drink some more but before I touched the water with my tongue I noticed small distribution similar to this I created a second ago but now was coming to me. I raised my head again and the shadow at the opposite bank also raised its head. Its eyes seemed to shine in dimly-red colour but the rest of the body stayed hidden. It rose on its back legs and speeded along the side of the lake bank, the fog returned and covered the shadow.

I kept staying in place, frozen, until I came to a realisation: it is going around the lake... for me.

In a wave of panic, I turned around, but slipped and fell into the lake in the loud splash. The water was cold and dark, I couldn't see but I felt the ground under my paws. I pushed as hard as I could and rocketed myself from the water as it appeared that it wasn't deep. Not wasting any more time I ran to the place where Sonya was lying.

"Something is coming!" I screamed at the sleeping absol just as I saw her, but she didn't move. I tapped her hard with the paw but instead of soft fur, my paw met bare tree bark. I blinked twice, the shape which I was talking to was only the tree's root and it wasn't even absol-like.

"Sonya!" I screamed spinning around but the only answer was a loud splash, close, too close to me, just where I was before. The instinct took a lead, I was running. Not knowing the way, not knowing where Sonya was, not knowing what was chasing me. I was running where my four limbs could take me, as fast they could take me. Like a chased prey I was zigzagging between trees, jumping above holes, scrambling through the overgrowth, trying to lose my hunter.

Something was still behind me, I could hear its heavy breathing, I could hear its two legs breaking twigs and I heard its barks. It was larger than me and larger than the absol was. Sometimes I felt it breathe at my neck, other times I thought I lost it but I still was running and I hoped that I will be able to run much longer. Tiredness was slowly exhausting me, my breath changed into a wheeze, paws become heavier and the path before me started to be blurry. I needed some sun, without it I was defenceless, weak as eevee and I hadn't a chance to really charge myself lately. I couldn't run anymore, even walking was a too big effort. I felt that I will throw my lungs out in every next step. With all the strength I had left, I threw myself between overgrow almost hugging the ground. I heard this coming, I stopped breathing at all.

It entered my view in full run, it was moving on two back legs only helping itself balancing with almost-to-the-ground front arms ended with long claws. It had crimson-red fur at its back but white at its belly and limbs. Its posture was stoop-shouldered, the head was canine, with big long mane at its head from which was pending single black horn, barely visible in the storm of fur.

Immediately it stopped few steps away from me, stood there motionless only breathing, making the dense fog to flow. Slowly moving its head, it scanned its surroundings and looked directly at me. A new wave of panic and adrenaline make me forget about my tiredness, but before I could jump to run again the lycanroc shot its head and glanced in another direction as if hearing a new sound from there. With a blood curdling howl, it sprinted into the direction of the new sound which I couldn't hear by myself.

For a long time, I stayed in place, staring where the lycanroc had disappeared, I was too scared to move. It could hear things I couldn't, It could run longer and faster than me and it was so mysterious what this creature was. I was even afraid to think too loud so it may find me. The adrenaline went off but I was still trying my hardness to stay alerted yet my eyes were slowly closing and it was harder and harder to lift my heavier with every moment eyelids.

I felt like I was falling. Falling into a lake of darkness without end. It was peaceful, this void was warm, comfortable. I kept slowly drifting through space without any effort until the ground came into my vision. The ground was deprived of any details, a flat smooth membrane softly bending under my paws. From the membrane was rising shape-less object, circulars knolls, slim lobes. Gaining new and new cracks and wrinkles they were step by step creating the environment.

"Oh, surprise, there is a forest," I commented as the shapes were shaped enough to allow me to guess what the really were. It wasn't coloured, everything around me was made of the same dark membrane, on the membrane, trees were hanging dark membrane leaves, the dark ground was covered with dark grass. Only the ground closest to my paws stayed unchanged and everywhere I moved the darkness was returning to its previous form. I hadn't any doubts, it was the forest from my repeating dream, yet this time a bit different. Firstly, I wasn't the main character of this a but it was an eevee nervously walking few steps ahead of me. The eevee also was made from the dark membrane and seemed to not seeing or ignoring me looking for something different. I followed closely behind him not being afraid to be noticed that the further the eevee went, the colder it was. The grass was becoming small razors, leaves changing into thorns but I kept following until the eevee suddenly stopped. Before him were multiple dark blades, needles and razors, each of them aimed straight into the eevee, creating giant bush of pain. I looked around finding that every other way was clear from sharp things.

"Maybe try going there?" I suggested to eevee pointing to the random direction. The eevee followed my guide and went where I pointed him to go, but we didn't go far when the situation repeated and we again stood before the wall of spikes and blades.

"To the right," I suggested, again and again, I listened yet the situation repeated.

"To the left,"

"Go right,"

"Left,"

"Right,"

"Right and right again,"

We stopped before next and still the same barrier but this time an eevee wasn't waiting for my command and he charged at the dangerous bush, somehow going between sharp branches and leaves he disappeared from my view. The branches rosed and started with fury smashing into a bush invader. I could feel narrow thorns pierce my back until banging into bones, retiring and going down again. The old wounds opened, reminding me forgotten pain.

There was a single flash, whiteness so strong that darkness immediately vanished, bushes were burned to nothingness, the forest disintegrates into dust and ashes.

This light illuminated from the eevee and stayed with me for the rest of my life, I was wearing it on my leaves and I keep it burning until it burns me too.

I snapped out from the dream as the cold wind blown into my ear, I changed position a bit to protect myself from the wind, my paws were wet but it wasn't raining.

I only walked into the bush and evolved.

I only walked in and that was all.

I don't remember anything.

It wasn't real.

I was staying in place until the light of morning sun gave me powered me and I was able to stand up again. The day made me more confident and I wasn't so scared of this lycanroc anymore, with the sun' rays I was capable of much more than a just short sprint, for example, I was capable for much longer and faster run.

I had to find Sonya and get out of this nightmare forest, was it always so foggy here? Looking back I couldn't see further than the tip of my tail! It was horribly similar to my dream, these trees and ground deprived of details, if a dark eevee would suddenly walk out of the fog, I would probably shit myself.

But where could Sonya be? And where was she when I had to run? Maybe we somehow missed each other? Or I missed her, I wasn't even sure if I returned to the right tree back then. Maybe I was lost from the time I went to drink? Fuck this fog, it was all its fault!

'Specific climate!'

'SPECIFIC CLIMATE!'

Shit, not the climate! It was almost impossible to find anything here, walking with closed eyes give the same effect as when walking with them open, I couldn't see anything. At least the sun's rays were strong enough to reach me here.

Where could an absol go? A lake? I was a bit afraid to return to the lake and I couldn't find any connection why absol had to be near the lake. Then maybe the mountain, there was one in this forest. Absols like mountains, or I thought they do. So, the mountain!

I didn't know which way the mountain were, so I kept walking for a long time and my only guide was a sun that I felt with my leaves, it's how I found the mountain, or the direction to where it was. It was blocking the sun so I assumed it was the shadow of the mountain. It was hard to guess, the forest was thick and I was losing a feeling of sun quite often but trusting my instinct I managed to choose a specific way to go instead of aimlessly wandering.

I finally found this black, cold and high wall of stone. The walk didn't take me long considering that I didn't expect to find it before nightfall and here surprise, walking since sunset I found it at noon. I may guess it was an hour but I forgot how long an hour is. Sonya said something about sixty minutes, yet I was able to count only to sixteen so, guess that I just won't bother myself with time counting.

Going alongside the mountainside I noticed similar marks of burns. It looked old, all this place looked old, as if it hadn't changed over many years, it was a bit of a depressing sight. Suddenly, I bumped into something, or two somethings, that grumbled and cursed.

"What the fuck?" Snorted the bumped thing, which appeared to be a quadruped black canine pokemon with fur covered in a few bone-like growths.

 _Damn it, why I had so plant-related connections all the time? Did I really change that much with my type?_

"Hey isn't it the same weird thing we caught last time?" asked a second houndoom, but for me, both of them looked exactly the same.

"It's... similar, even smells similar but look, the eyes of this one are different and this one has white leaves," answered him his friend.

"Excuse me faggots, but did anyone ever smash your muzzles?" I threatened in full anger. "I am into females, go fuck yourselves instead of looking into my eyes!"

I caught both of pokemon off guard as they stood there completely stunned until one asked

"Should we burn him?"

"No! That would make us even more... you know, more than we already made ourselves!" answered him another.

"So what..."

"Hey faggots, come here, we are done!" yelled a houndoom who just walked out of the cave from the mountainside few steps behind two. This one was visibly old but still strong. "Who is it?" he added after he noticed me.

"I am Zar," I answered, a bit worried.

"That means no one. Goin, take your disabled brother and stop wasting time! You not only sleep during guard duty, but also snorted so loudly that I had to listen to it the entire time I was in the cave!" yelled again old houndoom, and quickly walked out of my view disappearing into the wood saying also something about a 'fucking echo'.

"Okay Gloim," mumbled Goin, and shot a short 'come' to the second houndoom before both of them followed their, what I assumed, leader.

Well, I was lucky. They really could have burned me there, but they didn't, so a wide smile crossed my mouth, yeah I would feel even better as Dark-type. Wasn't it their thing to threaten and not get any payback for it?

*Tsssk*

My ears shot up at the unexpected sound.

The barely noticeable sound was coming from the entrance that houndoom left, the more I was listening to it the more it sounded like a conversation, as if multiple hisses were creating words I couldn't understand. The sound was quiet and unclear, yet at the same time very attracting. It was nice to listen to it and it lured me inside of the dark and low tunnel. It could be nice to have some sort of light here, not depending only on ears and weird sounds. Yet it guided me and when my eyes adjusted to the darkness enough to allow me to see at least an outline of the walls I noticed that I was in a large grotto, almost completely filled with the water of the underground lake. The voice was coming from the sheet of the water but still wasn't making any more sense. I leaned forward over the water, which completely didn't smell like water, just to see my own reflection all lit up in white. My reflection looked at me with a considered face expression, I moved my face in left and right admiring my own reflection.

I looked cool with all these white features, a bit deprived of something natural. but still nice.

"Strange lake," I judged, but my voice was dubbed like an echo with the difference that it was coming straight from the mirror. I leaned even lower toward the water, concentrating on my reflection, which just like reflection should, mimicked me.

Suddenly, the stone that was supporting my front-paws gave against my weight, and I fell head first into the lake. My skull collided with the skull of a white leafeon, causing pain as if it was a real skull, but at the same time, I went through it still falling. It was a short jolt of pain as if I was on fire but immediately followed by the wave of cold.

"Uhh!" I grumbled at a sudden headache which wanted to rip my head apart. I found myself lying at the bank of the same underground lake, with the difference that the room now wasn't completely dark. It also wasn't lit up, I could just see everything as if the stone had become a source of light by itself. I slowly stood up, still fighting my slowly passing headache. I have had enough of this cave and I wanted to go outside. But before that, I checked one more time in the mirror, there was no reflection in the water. I touched the water and my paw met solid material, it was like ice but wasn't cold, it wasn't end of my worries, my paw was all white, my whole limb was white, every inch of my body was completely shiny white. I tried to brush or lick it off but it wasn't any dust or dye. It was my skin, my fur and my leaves, I was like the reflection.

"Three! I give three drops of life for these shoes that take you beyond the fifth sphere!" Screamed a voice from somewhere from outside of the cave, and as I stopped focusing on myself I heard multiple buzzes of different voices. It was all the hiss I heard earlier, but now it started to make sense, I could pick from it single words and understand sentences even if most of them weren't making any sense. What did 'shoes that take you beyond the fifth sphere' mean? And what were 'shoes'?

Going to the entrance I passed a furret, almost twice my height, but was crying, pushing its head into the stone and just like me it wasn't coloured normally. It had deep grey going into dark colour and for the moment I thought that I could see through him, as if he was partly transparent, showing his beating heart, swollen lungs covered in his skeleton. I quickly looked away and continued quickly walk toward the exit.

There was no forest before the exit, there was a huge crowd of every pokemon I knew or heard about and even more of them I completely didn't know, yet everyone was deprived of their colour, staying in greyscale colourisation. Those I heard earlier were staying closest to the cave entry, they were tall two-legged creatures with normal fur only at the top of their heads and the rest of their body was covered in something similar to very smooth fur but not connected directly with their body. It was most visible at the end of their top limb. They were all screaming at the crowd, wielding with stuff in their things that they had instead of a paw. I walked in the crowd trying my hardest to avoid being stomped, I quickly found out that I wasn't alone in this and there were also pokemon who tried to avoid being stomped like me. When I found the rhythm and direction of the crown it was much easier, like allowing the river flow to take you whenever it was flowing. I ended in the centre of the wide place before something that fitted Sonya's description of the house, with 'glass windows', a 'smoking cowl' and 'wooden façades'.

It was loud inside, someone was singing to the rhythm of screeches and rumbles, but was barely hearable in the squeeze of other voices and sounds. Most of the creatures here were these huge two-legged weirdly furred creatures, also everything inside seemed to be adapted to them.

I sit down and wondered aloud.

"What was in that underground lake that I have a trip like this?"

The worst thing was that it completely didn't feel like hallucinations but something much more real, and every time I was closing and opening my eyes my view was staying the same and any normal foggy forest didn't want to replace it.

"Hey, you! Such whiteness you have, don't you want to exchange some of it for this bottle of life?" screamed at me a female two legged creature with a 'bottle' in her limbs, who just left the moving crown of creatures that was passing next to the place.

"Bottle of life?" I repeated sceptically, even if I didn't know what was this oblong transparent thing, I wasn't so stupid that it would contain 'life'.

"Yeah, exactly, just one drink and you feel as if you would be alive again, I mean... temporary," spoke energetic creature.

"Fuck off, Margaret," said, from behind me, a spine-chilling harsh voice that sounded as if was energised by sparkling lighting, cracking at syllables and hissing at letters. Turning my head, I saw a shape familiar to jolteon but his colour was black and his sides were crossed by long yellow zigzag lines. However, despite the appearance of jolteon, he had a tail, a long leaf covered in orange fur that, closer to the end, was changing into a golden ring to finally end with deep blue diamond shaped tip. I heard wired jokes about side effects of an eeveelutions love triangle but to create such thing needed to happen unimaginable mess.

"Go away Part, I'm trying to sell something," Margaret replied angrily to jolteon, but he wasn't paying any more attention to her, instead he was looking at me with blank stare.

After a moment he snapped out and seeing that Margaret didn't leave, he growled and turned to walk away. I followed him. We weren't walking long when our environment become a deep and thick forest, very similar to the one I was with Sonya yet, different.

"Fascinating," said Part. Anyway, it was a weird name but I assumed that it fitted something like this freak. "Fascinating," he repeated.

"What is so fascinating?" I asked a bit irritated. Part stopped and turn to me, he seemed to be surprised to see me but I was more than sure that he noticed me following him.

"Your mind, so open and yet closed. If I would try, I could make you do whatever I want, yet I can't read it as I would like to, just as I am trying to, it behaves like dark-type mind, completely disappearing from my senses. You are quite a weirdo," he said in his cracking voice.

"You call me a weirdo? Did you see yourself?" I countered with my anger rising, this thing contained also espeon in itself and tried to read me!

"Who was your mother?" he suddenly asked and I felt as if some invisible heavy force pushed against my head.

"Myra," I answered unwittingly, my tongue was moving without my will and it took me a moment to realise that it was me who said it.

"No, no, no. A name is not very important, it can be changed very quickly. What species was she?" Part asked again.

"Flareon." I once again answered against my own will almost biting off my tongue. The pressure in my mind disappeared, Part sighted and looked somewhat poorer when he walked away.

"Resistant you are," he shot back to me. "Don't trade your whiteness, there is nothing more worth here than that."

"Where is here?!" I screamed angry and at the edge of crying, my mind was just abused, I was lost and confused. I had never before wanted to just return home as now.

"Void, oblivion, the world of dead, antimatter, call it whatever you want," Part answered as he was further and further. "These are just fancy names that doesn't mean anything."

"But I am alive!" I screamed at him.

"Maybe you didn't notice when you died?" Said the jolteon before he disappeared from my view in the forest.

"No! I am alive! Alive! Alive!" The world around me spun and I pushed back taking a deep breath. I was standing again in the cave at the bank of the underground lake. My head was all wet as I just pull it off the lake. I leaned back on the hard and cold stones trying just to breathe, I was back, I wasn't all white, the cave was dark and I was alive. Just horribly tired.

With blurry vision and a dizzy mind, helping myself by leaning against the wall, I made my way to the exit. Everything around was pulsing in red in the black night, trees, as if half transparent, were pumping blood through their roots and branches. The space around me seemed to be deprived of air, I was breathing heavily, gasping and still choking. I walked from tree to tree leaning against each of them, stumbling against roots, rapidly blinking, trying to clear my vision from the dark fog that appeared at the edge of my sight, and was covering more and more of the world. I hiccoughed, spewing the water from my mouth before me and finally taking one loud real breath. Staying in a straddle position and kept spewing, hiccoughing and burping until my breath regulated, returning almost to normal, then I sat down closed my eyes and rested for a bit, motionless in that position.

I opened my eyes. Looking up, the moon was barely visible through the trees, bare from leaves' crowd. I could hear repeating the sound of pacing approaching me from my left. I ignored the sound focusing only on being alive, funny how such a simple thing was hard for me right now, but my lungs screamed in pain with every breath and my heart was beating so hard that I could feel it in my ears. I felt pain, I was alive.

The twig cracked just next to me and I instinctively shot a glance at it. Not further than a paw reach from me was standing a lycanroc, seeing that I noticed it smiled. Feeling absolutely hopeless I smiled back.

 _Fuck._

In a blink of the eye, I was on all fours, putting my hurting legs into effort again. With little chance that I would successfully run away, I sprinted ahead, but a moment later I was outrun and quadruped pokemon crossed my patch. I changed my course but it was faster again. My left front-limb shook and gave up under my weight making me fall to the ground with my chest. My impetus made me slid for short distance, too short to escape the lycanroc.

"Clumsy are we?" sounded the happy female predator's voice. No wonder that she was happy, I would be too if I would just find myself a night meal. Under the moon, everything tasted surprising better yet my parents weren't allowing me to eat at night saying that's unhealthy.

Well, at least I would be an unhealthy meal and maybe rip her ass apart tomorrow morning. But considering that I am half plant, the chances that I am unhealthy were quite low, damn it!

"Clumsy and not talkative," the lycanroc said, now just above my left ear.

"And what I should talk about? I got hunted. What, you expected me to do more? Maybe should I sing a song of how great hunter you are, dancing in the meantime, getting ready my tastes parts?! Did no one tell you that you shouldn't play with food?" I answered irritated and looking up. I noticed that it wasn't the same lycanroc, this one was fully quadruped, its fur was light brown and she had large tufts of brown fur extend from the sides of the head.

"Did you washed since yesterday or it's now when you are dirty?" I questioned but then saw much more differences, it couldn't be just water.

"Eh? I don't recall that I met some walking grass yesterday," she said sitting next to me, close enough to catch me in her teeth if I would suddenly jump to run again.

"Actually, I thought that I am more similar to fern. We have much more in common, the grass is always jealous about the sun and tries to smother other small plants around," I said creating a moment of awkward silence. The clouds in the sky got out of the sky by the wind showing the great platinum disc in its full glory, I wondered how many currants would Serge count on it.

"Shouldn't you be at least a bit scared?" she asked finally breaking the pause.

Yeah, I should be. She was just about to end my life and all that will be left from me will be a warm stinky brown pile at tomorrow. However, this thought was somehow distant to me, I just didn't feel like dying. Tired, yes, but not dying.

"That's an eeveelution, you won't get through his arrogance so easily," said something I couldn't see but needed to be behind sitting lycanroc.

"Arrogance?" I repeated, trying to see who said it.

"Yes, it's how your species used to be. Arrogant and annoying, but maybe I should feel lucky, thanks to it there are not too many eeveelutions around."

I finally managed to see who was talking when he stood next to my hunter, however, this one looked like a mix of her and the one I saw yesterday's night.

"I really don't have any willingness to discuss it with you," he said just as I opened my mouth to respond. "Let's just take him to the proud one."

Regardless of multiple expressions of my resistance and anticipation toward them, the grey lycan dragged me like a pup by the back of my neck causing a pain I made even worse trying to free myself. They weren't answering to any of my threats or pleas, the first one just had his full mouth and the second one was completely ignoring me in rising my anger. Maybe if I wasn't so tired then my attempt to escape would have a chance to succeed, but currently, I couldn't do anything more than just make their walk harder and make my neck hurt even more.

We stopped next to the lake, I assumed it was the same lake I saw earlier but at a different bank. I was tossed to the moist ground, I landed softly on the layer of fallen leaves and rolled on my belly but I hadn't a chance to stand up as grumpy stereotypical lycanroc put a paw on my back pushing me down, acting as if I would still have a strength to run or even stand.

 _What had tired me so much? I hadn't done much._

"Is this the living compost you mentioned earlier?" spoke the male, following his sight to me, who these words were addressed. Next to the tree, was standing, or rather pitifully hanging on her horn, deeply inserted in the tree's bark, Sonya. She looked even messier than usual, her white colour disappeared completely under the leaves, fragments of bark, and mud covering her fur equally over every part of her figure. Her eyes were half open and it seemed that she was unconscious. She had a really bad day yesterday.

"It's for sure him, Laden, we hadn't smelt another leafeon there, also this one fits the description," instead of the absol, the light-brown lycanroc answered. From Sonya, only a quiet growl came.

"As if we would smelt him at all Kaestra, he has the same odour as grass," spat Zab, taking away his paw from my back and pacing around.

"Let's give them a moment, they won't be able to do much in this shape," suggested Kaestra, stopping by the second lycanroc's nervous movings. He wondered about it for a moment observing me and Sonya, checking if that what his (what I assumed) mate said was true before giving a short nod and wordlessly lied in a place where he could easily see both, me and the absol. Kaestra joined him curling next to him but opposite to Zab, she wasn't paying any attention to anything, closing her eyes.

Feeling a bit safer not having them just above my head, I lifted myself a bit and shuffled, trying to avoid making any too rushy movement. I moved to the tree with Sonya.

"Hey, how you feel?" I asked, but I could already see that she was not too well.

The "Ehhh," that I got as an answer only made me more confident about it, but I couldn't do anything for it right now without risk. Healing was a heavy effort, making it already being tired could damage me more than help her.

I examined her horn, it was so deep in the tree that the only part visible was the part close to her head.

 _How did you manage to end up like that? Were you trying to cut a tree?_

I could always ask the pair of our trappers, but I felt that I would be again ignored. I guessed that they probably found her already like that, maybe I didn't know Sonya longer than two days, but she didn't seem to be the type who would miss her attack that much.

I decided to use as much time we had been given for rest and then I see what to do next. The good thing was that Sonya and I hadn't been eaten yet, that could mean that we are be needed for something, or lycanrocs liked fresh meat, but weren't hungry right now. But maybe it was something connected with that cave, I hoped not. I didn't want to return there, seeing transparent creatures and having my mind abused. It all looked so real, I really had a feeling that I walked there, that I touched and heard, but it had to be only a dream. Maybe a hallucination? And was it a hallucination that made Sonya attack the tree?

I noticed both of the lycanrocs approaching us.

"The rest has ended, now stay aware," spoke Zab, and took a place next to me, but to my surprise, facing the opposite direction. The second lycanroc took another flank next to Sonya and sat similarly, observing the area.

"What's going on?" I asked confused, it would still be stupid attacking his back, but it still wasn't how prisoners should be watched.

"The fog is raising and it carries weird thing, scary and strange things. We need to work together now," answered Kaestra, her voice wasn't as strong as before noticeably trembling.

"What if I won't," I asked, seeing like the fog was lazily flowing between trees toward us, it wasn't scary at all, fog like every other. This time lycanroc of the dust answered me.

"Then you will end like Retran, the fog will take you."


	10. Ch10 The two

I turned around and tried to pull Sonya out of the trunk, the tree had a strong grip on her horn. I could feel her slowly moving in my way when I suddenly lost my gnaw on the tang of her scythe, my fangs painfully screeched against grey-blue bone and the impact made me fall on my back. My vision was covered by the fog that was close to the ground. I rolled to stand up yet before I pushed myself above, the mist left. I saw blue light shining through overwhelming whiteness. The light wasn't random, but clearly shaped into six round rings, that, imitating walking, were moving away from me. I knew those lights, I saw them too often to forget them.

"Wait! Hey, wait!" I screamed as I jumped on all four and skipped towards the lights of the walking umbreon. Now I could see him better, he was walking peacefully, not paying attention to his surrounding. When I was close, he turned the corner of the larger tree, disappearing from my view. I ran following him, but just there were no more visible lights. I spun around trying to find at least the pale of light but there was nothing.

"Serge!" I screamed, and my voice echoed through the completely silent forest, disappearing behind the white shroud. In this silence, my breath became noisy, as I was breathing heavily through my mouth, exhaling white swirls.

 _When did it become so cold?_

The ground began to crack rapidly when all of the moisture turned slowly to ice. The ice was also growing along the trees, changing their leaves and branches into long icicles. My leaves and fur also covered in ice, not completely frozen, but with this thin layer.

"Ah, I found you!" resonated behind me. I faced the source of the words, which appeared to be an unnaturally oversized flareon staying high and proud.

"Sogot?" I asked unsurely.

"And who did you expect?" Sogot answered in his usual baritone. "Come on, the pack will love me when I return them their one and only leafeon."

"You were looking for me?" I asked again, surprised.

"Are you coming, or would you like to stay here; it's quite cold here" He only said, already walking away. Keeping my distance, I followed.

"Why are you so surprised? Maybe I don't like you, but I never wished anything like this to happen. Also, the safety of all the pack members is my responsibility, so I had to find you," he explained, seeing my hesitation.

"Sogot, that's not the way out of this forest. We are going straight toward the mountain," I stated stopping in place again noticing the familiar environment and feeling of emptiness these plants were radiating was only getting deeper this way, but my worry quickly faded away when the new appearance was seen walking out of the fog. Her cyan eyes, contrast by her fine lilac fur, locked with mine, making me freeze in place. The freeze was short as the familiar yet still unknown emotion rushed through my mind fogging it, refreshing and tensing my muscles, making my thoughts wild, unpredictable but also indecent. I recognised those long legs full of grace, wrapped tips of the slowly swinging split tail, high cheekbones that were making her oval eyes more aggressive and so tantalising.

"Cera," I whispered as I slowly approached her, not believing my eyes. Was it a dream? Because if yes, then I wanted to keep dreaming a bit longer.

She was looking at me with a judgmental look, staying still on the high ground. I couldn't resist, and from a slow walk, I jumped to her, to rub our cheeks to feel her warmth, almost missing that she opened her mouth. However, before she could say anything, I was just next to her. The wind blew away the fog, and with it, the appearance of Cera, Serge's light blinking behind the tree, and powerful posture of Sogot. I stood there with a tightened heart, seeing how my dream slowly fades away with all white mist showing me the dark entrance to the cave excavated in the even darker stone mountain with two peaks.

"Do you feel it? Power. It's coming from there."

"It feels bad, the pain, so sad, so wrong," I answered, I felt it, it was like the wind blowing in my face from the entrance. It wasn't touchable, it felt as if it was touching my mind directly trying to invade it with emotions and thoughts, but like a breeze against the shore, it couldn't do anything. "Retran, wasn't it?"

Leaning back against the tree was a lycanroc that yesterday had been chasing me, crossing her upper limbs, she was staring at the ground, but the fringe was covering her eyes.

"It's its power of distortion that slowly eats this world. It was calling for me, it looks for a chosen one who will take it and finish what was unfinished," she said, standing on all four and facing me. I gulped knowing what I had to face. Her face seemed to be never cursed by any thought, making the same powerful contrast to the way she was saying every word. "I allowed it inside, I wanted to be chosen and I was, I started to see! I started to hear!" she started screaming. "I was there and back! But then you appeared and all this power left me here blank and stupid on the cold ground, leaving only pain and sadness! Give it back!"

Almost instantly she leapt forward, with acceleration that made her outstretched claws whizz in the air. Depending on luck I swung to the left covering myself in my tail so she couldn't see my next move, the one I didn't manage to made as sharp talons ripped my leaf from the middle to the tip into three separate shreds. In a blink of the eye, I notice the second paw coming down straight on my face, without time to dodge I jumped forward. The claws didn't go through my throat but painfully slid by my cheek, luckily missing the eye. My forehead, with a loud crack, was slammed into her jowl, her head leapt back making her fall over her back, stopping her aggressive claw barrage. It took her a long moment to come back on her legs, yet I couldn't use it as I was dizzy from my headache that exploded in my head after impact.

I saw her heavy bleeding and spewing from her mouth, she probably bit her own tongue. This time, before the jump, she growled deeply swinging at me with the clawed paw. Using our difference in high I ducked under her attack and immediately threw myself at her in an attempt to bite, but I only harmless flew behind my foe.

Lycanroc, missing her attack on me, lost her balance and tripped, moving far from where I was aiming my attack. The tempo was fast, so I used this moment to take a breath before the rock-type got ready to fight again. She had a problem with breathing with a mouth full of blood, every deeper breath was probably painful too. She tried to attack me, now going from the bottom, I jumped up, avoiding her claws once again, but I didn't manage to avoid her teeth that closed on my left back leg, making me yelp in pain. I furiously bit anything I had in reach to get rid of her, my fangs grit on her ear and my claw went through her eye, only then did she let go of my leg.

I fell on the ground behind and spew her ear from my mouths, I felt that I couldn't stand on my ragged, bloody red, leg. It looked horrifying yet it wasn't so painful, guess that pain would come later when the adrenaline wore off. Panting and keeping my balance on my only three limbs, I turned to my foe. She covered her head in paws, whining silently while the weird liquid was coming down her front leg, glueing her fur together in disgusting curls. Knowing that she wasn't looking at me I turned and as fast my wounded leg allowed me, I tried to hobble to the first better bush to hide. Before I reached it, a strong wind blew, the fog thickened and darkened, from the entrance of the cave came loud gurgling sound, followed by new fumes coming out of the mountain that started to shape into something huge and serpentine. It wasn't a normal cloud, but also not as realistic illusion as I saw before, it was like a shadow made of smoke, long, with many outgrowths like a branch of thorns, and two brightly shining red orbs that were like eyes staring at me. The ground below it was covered in a thick layer of ice that was slowly spreading forward. I was standing in shock at the edge of the small field I was fighting, now too scared to move even if every part of me was screaming for me to run. Lycanroc noticed the strange creature too and finding new strength, she rushed into the forest. In the moment when Retran's paw crossed the edge of the field, from the centre of the mountain came another wave of gurgling and the serpentine shadow, with great acceleration, followed the lycanroc's tracks. When the shining red "eyes" of this thing only disappeared from my view, I snapped out of it and got into a run too. I had only one thought now, escape. Escape from this mountain, escape from this shadow, leave this forest far behind. From afar I could hear the powerful roar and a moment later, a much weaker scream of pain made me run faster. I stumbled over the pending roots and my damaged tail didn't manage to balance me when I fell on the ground and rolled two times. I raised my head and saw how the dark cloud, like a storming wave of water, was making its way in my direction. This time, fear squeezed out from me a panicked scream as there were no chances I could escape it now.

The grit on the back of my neck came even faster than I expected but it didn't rip my head from my body or even penetrate my skin. It actually lifted me on my paws almost throwing me forward.

"Don't stop!" I heard the familiar voice of Sonya as she pushed me to move even faster besides I was already within my limits. I felt if I had to spit out my lungs and the pain in my leg was becoming impossible to stand.

"I can't." My view was becoming dark and I missed completely what Sonya screamed.

 _You can run, but you won't outrun me. You can fight, but you won't win against me. I am here, I am in this forest, and now I am in you._

I was stumbling more and more often until I really couldn't make it a single step further. In one moment I saw the way we were running, later the wet dirt, everything seemed so far away, everything became so quiet. Blue blur cornered by darkness, the flash of light, the clear night sky covered in stars, frozen bottom of a tree branch, wings, another sky, or was it the same one? White wings, white wings all over me. I could hear them flapping several times before the sound of hitting a rock and then again flapping, the view of the sky and down, below trees crowns, not frozen anymore. My eyes closed by themselves, sending me into the dream with a calm sky, fields of warm grass, chilling air and familiar faces.

* * *

Unpleasant light forced its way through my eyelids into my eyes making me snap out of the wonderland. As if following the light, pain struck, it was coming from every muscle in my body, even these I didn't know I possessed. I groaned loudly and tried to roll on my paws, then I found out how strange a position was I lying in. I felt that I was upside down and when I opened my eyes I found out that I was burrowed deep in a bush and all branches above me were broken. I must have fallen from above. It wasn't easy to get out of here, especially when every move caused me extra pain, however, my wounded leg, due my sleeping position, was completely numb feeling like useless log attached to my hip.

 _How did I even get these wounds?_

My tail looked bad too, and was soaking in almost-transparent green liquid, half of it was pitifully hanging like a broken. but still attached to plant, branch. My tongue felt like a burned-to-ashes peace of wood as I was extremely thirsty, my breathing was terrible too. I listened to my environment, hoping to hear pleasantly splashing water nearby but my attempt was disturbed by returning blood circulation in my leg that brought the new wave of pain and suffering. A short yelp escaped my mouth as I tripped over and licked my leg until the pain was again sustainable. Then, to my thirstiness joined the hunger. But not this typical hunger which I could satisfy with some sun, instead it was a hunger sucking in my stomach and that was making my teeth itching, I needed to eat something real.

But what could I manage to catch in that shape? Even at full strength, my hunting skills were rather low.

I will catch what eeveelutions always hunt for, something smaller, weaker and defenceless. Maybe even something asleep or not even born? Like some egg.

My instincts were pushing me to hunt and I couldn't resist it, I was hungry and there had to be food for me somewhere. I sniffed around, whiffing a few different promising scents. The closer one was coming from a nearby tree, I hate climbing. The tree was easy to climb, with many wide branches which I could use and rest my damaged leg, slowly making my way up. Somewhere in the middle of the full tree height, I found my prey, three eggs in a dim brown colour. They were very easy to miss being similar to the tree in colour, but the scent of its owner was strong, whatever it was. I wasn't going to find out whose this scent was, I quickly broke the thin shell and licked the yellow goo. It wasn't tasty, but filling. I returned to the solid ground and started searching for some water.

 _What am I even doing here?_ I didn't recognise any part of the forest I was going through. Then how I get here? When I tried to remind myself of what I was doing yesterday, only blurs and headaches came into my mind, so I decided to leave it for later.

Going ahead in a supposedly random direction, I actually found water. It was like a big pond, probably the point where water was concentrating, dropping off the surrounding ground but it was more than enough. After a drink, I lied down in a bit higher fern that could prove me at least some protection and at the same time possible to still be in the sun's rays. Not forcing anything I allowed my body to heal. My muscles relaxed, and the pain in my leg became kind of numb, but it wouldn't be so easy to heal it fully.

Resting my head on my forepaws I tried to take a nap, but not letting my guard completely off, monitoring my surrounding with short moves of my ears making them look as if it was just another leaf of the fern, swinging in the weak gusts of wind.

The sun was not far above the horizon, but considering the current season, it was close to the horizon for the whole day and there will be less and less of it in close future. For sure that wasn't any time in the morning but also not evening, I needed to wake up past noon so I still had some of the day before the night. I spend it hiding and licking my injuries. When I felt a bit better I left the fern and washed my leg and tail in the water. It was cold, but still better than eventual infection, claws of ...

Emptiness filled my mind when I wanted to remember who did it to me, it was crazy. As if I knew it but couldn't really see it. But I would for sure recognise this pokemon when I see him..., or her, whatever. Drinking one more time, I wandered through the forest, trying to not use my injured leg as much as it was possible. I hadn't any idea where I was going, but staying in place also didn't make more sense to me. Seeing a destroyed bush, I assumed that I returned to the place I woke up, I felt sorry for the bush I destroyed, but I couldn't do much to actually help it, plants were already slowing down their lives, preparing for the cold that had to come, during which they weren't able to grow new parts or repairing broken ones. I just hoped it didn't die completely. However, on the ground was many more broken branches than a single bush could lose. Some of them were even of a size that certainly needed to be tree's branches. Looking up, I saw a kind of 'path' of the destroyed tree's crown. Following the trail with my view, I saw part of a white feathered wing, the rest of the creature stayed hidden from my eyes, by the trunk.

 _Maybe it's dead?_ I wondered, going around the tree to check if from the opposite side I would be able to see what it was.

Here, the overgrow was much higher, but I managed to stand on some rock and see what was on the tree. Tangled in the naked branches was a creature, that I even knew!

"Aaa... Soj... Soyna... Setia?" I somehow couldn't remind myself her name. Gah, why did thinking hurt so much, it felt as if my brain was still sleeping and out of my use for now. "HEY!" I finally screamed but there was no reaction. I growled and yelled for a few more times as my worry was growing. There was no way I could climb this tree, it was tall and thin, it was even amazing that it could stand the dark-type's weight.

 _How can I wake up her?_ I considered that she was just unconscious and not reacting to my voice. I am adapted to the forest, even pokemon that walked next to me could miss me, unless they were already looking or know about me, but the con of it was being hard to notice even trying to be noticed. Reminding how during my naps on the clearing Se… Set? Sar? Fuck, this one I forgot too? What's wrong with me today.

 _Brain. Start. Working._

Anyway, reminded how I sounded like I couldn't be very effective in waking someone up from the distance like this, I had to try different methods which I actually never thought would be helpful. Using my ears to feel the wind, as my tail wasn't fully operational yet, I gathered some saliva in my mouth and with force split it in the air. The foreseen blow of wind cared wet present directly in absol's ear. Or where I thought her ear was. The reaction was immediate, she shook her head, disturbing the balance in which she was and, probably unaware of her position, she simply fell to the ground.

Proud of my ability, that multiple times helped me in winning a crazy umbreon's contest, I padded to the grounded absol.

"Hi! I really really missed you around… is that a wing?" I exclaimed seeing her standing up from the ground. "Or even a pair of wings?" I exclaimed even more confused seeing also another one. She looked at herself with the same surprised face I had. In the meantime, I noticed that wings weren't only one addition though still most noticeable. Every of her blade become much longer and more dangerous looking, there was a huge gain in her fur and I personally thought that she looked greater with them now. There was also some difference in size, as earlier, it was a just slight difference due to species we were, now I felt worse than I felt next to Sogot.

Did my species really have to be 'smaller'? I really didn't feel good around pokemon much larger than me. In my pack, I wasn't the tallest too, but as an eevee, I was taller than most of the other eevees.

"Hi," the absol finally answered and approached me, before I could even think, my instincts made me jump back.

Calm down, Zar! I thought to myself, I know this pokemon. For real, what's wrong with me today?

The absol stopped in place with a mixed expression on her face.

"Hey, don't be scared. It's still me, Sonya," she spoke politely. My mind, for a moment, flashed images of few last days run before my eyes. How could I have forgotten? Sonya, an absol who hadn't really trusted me and I hadn't trusted her, the one I helped, and now she was helping me.

Great, now she thinks that I am scared of her. Okay, maybe a little. but who wouldn't, seeing his friend or rather ally in completely different shape. I quickly scanned myself, to check if I had any new addition, but I was still just a typical white-currently-more-brown-then-green coloured common leafeon.

"I am okay," I answered. "Just a little... surprised."

"With this look? Yeah, I was surprised too when it happened for the first time," she said sitting down, visibly avoiding approaching me again. "There is nothing to be afraid of, it will pass with time."

"So it's not permanent?"

"No, it isn't. I thought it would be. Are you aware of evolution stones?" she queried, I sat just next to her, trying to show her that I was not afraid of her, however, her new height at this distance made me feel even worse. Just one of these claws could split me in two, and there were no chances for luck, not mentioning this double scythe-horn...

"You know that you are just making this worse?" she spoke.

"What?"

"I just saw you look at me and your eyes grew wider and wider. I get that's natural for you to avoid things like these, but I can be like that for more than a day, so it would be easier if you would just calm down," she said calmly, I wasn't sure if she was so calm anytime before.

"So what you were saying about those stones?" I returned to the conversation.

"I was asking if you are aware of what they are?" she repeated.

"Yeah, one of my friend's family use them to evolve in one type, as they consider this specific evolution to be better than any other," I answered, remembering long corridors of glowing pink stones.

"Isn't that a bit racist, don't you think?"

"What is 'racist'?" I asked, hearing the new term.

"Nothing that you really should know, you rather won't meet it in the wild. It's when one group think that they're better than another, but also used when two... creatures disagree with each other, so one calls another racist to assert its right, generally this word doesn't have real meaning, it once had, now it's like another curse that you throw around trying to achieve something," she explained, but I already judged that knowing this won't be useful, so I didn't really focus on it, however, her hesitation in saying 'creatures' didn't really fit her speech. "But back to the evolution stone, to achieve this form something similar is needed, I had it back in the Elderly forest, but one tricky canine stole this mega stone from me. But even with this stone, form changing happens very randomly."

"So many new names, and I already had a headache, so 'Elderly' is the name of the forest we were in? I know names of places only where my pack is. Yet I don't get this 'randomly happening'," I asked. "You are also weirdly nice, I mean, you had a moment of being nice, but now something changed, right?"

"Yeah, it changed. Let me explain step by step. This, 'power-up' is happening when my life is in danger and I mean really really in danger, that it's almost impossible for me to survive. However yesterday, in the forest I had very hard time, worse than any before yet this evolution wasn't happening. Until I didn't go back into deepest of the dark wood in an attempt to find you. I think it's destiny, you have some goal and I have to help you in it."

"I don't believe in destiny," I answered having a feeling that Sonya hit something in her head, was it really still 'her', or it was changing her more than she was aware of?

"You should, it has guided all my life. Just by curiosity, what you and your packmates call your eeveelution's valley by?" she asked.

"Twelve Peaks Valley, from White Slopes to Endless Sands, also called Miracles."

"Would you like to hear what outsiders call it? Creep's Hole. Most of the pokemon consider your species as cowards and weaklings that need to group to mean something."

"So that was the end of nice Sonya? Guess we are back to normal," I summed up, thinking that she asked me about it just to turn it into a joke.

"Oh no, you have my trust and my honour laid in keeping you safe, I feel great in this other form, so strong and powerful that if I have to change into it more often by just being around than I will, also my belief in destiny and et cetera. Let's leave the talk about our absol culture for later. Going by the Hangman's path wasn't a good idea, but we prevailed but now we are going by some much more populated regions, so I thought that it would be better to tell you that you won't find a lot of empathy, but a hatred rising the closer we get to the Creep... I mean Twelve Peaks, let me be the guide!" She said with excitement, which I couldn't guess from where she took, things became weird, Sonya changed, I changed, a world I thought I knew appeared to be different.

My companion behaved as if there was nothing to worry about, but I still saw a serpentine shadow somewhere out of the corner of my eye every time I was remembering this mountain of dark stone, the underground pond and the white form of me, things I saw being 'there'. Trees pumping real blood, all these creatures were dead on this another side, it was their blood trees were pumping. I saw those who are carried, I somehow went to death land and returned and now Sonya was blurring something about destiny. I hoped my destiny won't be like I thought now, please don't be like it, I am just going back to my pack.

"So, what you in your opinion was 'that'," I asked, thinking about the Shadow.

"What?"

"The thing we were running from."

"A hungry pair of lycanrocs, I guess," she answered, it wasn't what I expected to hear. Did it mean that only I saw 'that'?

No, I was fighting with Retran, who also saw it, but she just like me was 'there' and back. Maybe returning from "this" world wasn't allowed and this Shadow tried to take us both back.

"So what exactly did you do after we split up?" I questioned curiously.

"You mean after you went to take a drink from the lake? I heard something on the opposite bank, so I went to check it out, halfway there I heard a splash of water from the place where you were drinking, so I thought that you'd slipped or something. When I returned, all that left was a scent, which led me until I meet red-furred lycanroc, you might hear about that night form of that pokemon. We fought with each other. It was weird, she didn't really know how to fight, it was visible that she wasn't experienced, yet there was a lot of luck on her side during this fight. A few times I mistook the fog with her and missed a lot of hits."

"Until you didn't, and slammed the tree with your horn?" I interject.

"Oh, you knew about that?" she asked in an embarrassment tone, I could imagine how her ears would go down if they were at least a little longer than her fur.

"That's how I found you, but continue."

"So when I woke up, without my horn in the tree, I saw two different lycanrocs cursing at the fog, I guessed that they were about to eat me so I fought with them. However, these two were experts, I couldn't win this, so I escaped. If they only knew more than just two moves then they would have had me. But my escape wasn't so good, I got lost multiple times, the fog was so dense that I didn't see my paws. Then I thought to find you, because you know, you are a grass type, so you know the way in the forest, I don't know why looking for you had to be easier than looking for the way out, but a light appeared. The light had the form of a white leafeon running as if Death himself was chasing him, so I followed. In one moment, the leafeon stumbled and the light disappeared. That was when I noticed you lying on the ground, we were at the edge of the forest and you know the rest. My mega evolution happened and I carried you with me."

"We were flying?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"No, I can't actually fly, these wings just allow me to make my jumps longer, but it wasn't real flight," she said. In the same moment, a short flash of light covered her, her shape rapidly shortening to an absol, and after the moment there was Sonya in a shape I knew. She glanced at herself and exhaled heavy breath.

"Ugh, I expected to keep it for a bit longer, back to this grey, bland and typical appearance," she grumbled.

"So, you were running from lycanroc until you saw some light radiating leafeon and followed him?" I saw that leafeon too when I looked into the underground pound, who was he? There was something exciting in it, I finally found a second leafeon! Though I hadn't a chance to talk with him, it was still pleasuring that I wasn't the only one.

"Don't mention that I escaped, again," she threatened, suddenly changing her voice to the angry sounds.

"Wha... why?" I asked.

"It's why... That's the reason why I was kicked out from my pack, it's dishonouring and," she stopped in the stream of words. "Why am I even trying to explain it, a creature like yourself won't get it. You are an eeveelution, running away is typical for your kind."

I was silent for a moment, but I felt like something was building in me and that I couldn't leave this without an answer.

"Why you care about that band of idiots?" I shot.

"What!?" Sonya exploded with anger, stopping in her way and glaring at me.

"Isn't running away and surviving a better thing to do they stay and face an 'honourable' death? Maybe because of thinking like that your species is so hard to meet? I bet that that pack doesn't have more than ten absols, while mine is counting hundreds!"

Sonya didn't respond immediately, and kept glaring at me for a long while.

"Why I didn't eat you when we just met, I was even hungry then," she finally spoke, turning away continuing the walk. "I wasn't born an eevee so I can't behave like one, both of us have this small world in which we must live."

"Why don't you change your world?" I joined her on the walk, being side by side.

"With you? No, you are too small for me," she said, my mind seemed to stop working for a moment before I realised what I just suggested. I almost invited her to my pack and that would mean...

"No, no no! You took it wrong, I have someone already! I mean, you are attractive and all, but no in that way."

She turned to me, raising her left brow.

"What I wanted to say, was to convince you to stop caring about pokemon that won't care for you," I exhaled, being already so embarrassed and confused that gathering word for a sentence was becoming a problem.

"That's good, this would be very one-sided if it comes to satisfaction, also you are going to die in the next seven, max nine, years while I won't be even middle-aged," she reminded me about the unfairness of life, but also raised a new question.

"How old are you?"

"Why are you asking?" she countered.

"No real reason."

"Ladies shouldn't be asked for their age," she said, putting it aside.

"Who?" I asked, confused, and her small smirk disappeared from her face. Who was 'Ladies', was it some position in absol rank?

"Almost two hundred moons," she answered, avoiding the second question. Now I regret that I never paid attention to Serge or Cyrus when they were talking about moons and stars, maybe then I would be able to calculate how many seasons are in two hundred moons.

"Oh, okay," I only said.

The weather got worse in the evening, thick clouds covered the sky, and the setting sun lit them from below, making them looks like the sea of flames before it disappeared completely, leaving us in dark. From now, ashen coloured clouds were dropping tiny flakes of snow that were disappearing in contact with the ground. It was still too warm. Back in the pack everyone needed to be busy with preparation for the cold time, burying food in the ground that had a chance to stand for longer edible or marking hideouts of potential preys to hunt them later. Guessing, I would have to collect some dry straw to warm up a few dens. It reminded me that I still needed to dig my own den after that heavy rain.

Would it mean that am a leafeon without a place to be? Theoretically, I could now dig a den whenever I wanted and make it my home. Though it wouldn't make any sense, why would I want to live so far away from everyone I knew? I would feel very lonely and isolated, and I wouldn't live like that too long. Chances on surviving alone were quite low, maybe during sun season, I would manage to live somehow normally using the forest overgrow to feed and camouflage myself, but staying in one place for longer creates the risk to meet some predator. Now, when we were moving almost all the time we hadn't to even worry about the tracks we left that much, even if someone found it, we will be already day or two ahead. We would need to be very unlucky to be spotted by a pokemon who was actually hunting, hungry and in size and strength that could consider us as food. Considering that it happened yesterday, next time could be very far ahead.

"How you feel with others outside of your pack of eeveelutions?" Sonya broke the silence.

"What you mean?" I asked back. _Why did it interest her so suddenly?_

"If you met someone from another pack, then would you be friendly, or immediately enemies, fighting for dominance and territory?" she expanded her query.

"Generally 'my' pack is, in reality, eighteen packs-"- _was I remembering it correctly?-_ "-sharing the ground. So I think that we would be fine, we don't have in common to hurt other members of our species unless it goes to fighting for leadership. Why'd you ask?"

The answer for me was a loud growl of absol's empty stomach.

"Oh right, there is time to eat something!" she exclaimed happily smiling, revealing her long white fangs that looked not less sharp than her claws.


	11. CH11 Type and Species, life of meanings'

Dark-types, they were always fascinating and full of wonders. Every type somehow affects the pokemon in its behaviour, but this certain one was going much deeper than others. Maybe if someone was like Sonya, their whole life a dark-type, and their personality were melded with their type from the beginning, that changes the typing caused weren't so visible. Knowing a pokemon before he went into the dark was marking a line between true personality, and what was visible 'outside', showed to the others in your environment. Though there are always needed specific attributes to evolve into umbreon, and evolution was making these attribute even stronger, there was always some unchanged piece inside. A soul, life force, spirit whatever, I am not the one who decides how this piece should be considered. For me, it was a mix of chemicals reactions, but whatever came out from this piece it needed to go through the evolved part and being expressed... well, like a typical dark type would express, happiness was dimed, jokes offensive (though I never really mind these kinds of jokes, I even liked them) and bad emotions easily overcame good ones. Words seemed not to weight anything and could be adjusted to the user's needs, the life of umbreons in the pack never was easy. They weren't made for it, rather, for living in small isolated groups far away from anybody. They were supposed to be evil and good at the same time. Their ability to grow the smallest worries in deep depression and a closed character was always a very troublesome combination.

Sonya wasn't an umbreon, she was absol, a dark-type from birth. Attributes didn't matter, life choices didn't matter, whatever she would do, she would still be the same dark-type absol as she used to be, even in this winged, oversized and armoured in more blades than deepest glaceon's hollows had icicles, form. Just like her, the rest of her entire species were subordinated to the same rules of being dark-type. Everyone with the same weaknesses and strengths, look and somehow proud but rude and grumpy attitude. If you are not as good as others at being dark-type, than you can't try to be good at something else. Just continue with being worse than everyone.

I thought about what happened to Sonya, anyways it sounds, she didn't fit her species. Yep, she was trying, but it was only trying. No one can do something just by trying, it needed to come from inside, be natural and smooth. Trying, again and again, could eventually make her take this nature, but it seemed that she has some anti-talent, as it didn't work yet.

What I had more to say? Serge was just a much better dark-type, so Sonya looked unconvincing and artificial to me. Or was I just thinking about nonsense? Because how could one dark-type be more dark-typed than another? Maybe I just spend to much time with them? Or was I right and it could work for me too? Like: somewhere in this world was more leafeoned leafeon than I was? Someone greener and more grassy? Like that light shining leafeon from yesterday? I should learn new abilities to be more of a leafeon than I am now! But what should I be like? More direct like a flareon or energised like a jolteon? How was I supposed to be like that? It would be much easier to ask someone about it, someone who may know the answer, best if it would be a leafeon too.

Would an absol be allowed to enter my pack? Alone, for sure not. With an eeveelution friend? If he would be from my pack then maybe, stranger, rather no. It could be seen as a trick. But with a little luck we would be allowed, under a watch of some escort, but still. We should at least try.

It was late at night, I stayed still, pretending to be a plant while Sonyia went hunting. My leaves were quickly adjusting to the environment colour, replacing shades of green with browns and yellows, however, the bottom part stayed white, as it always was. The white colour was easy to hide, it would be much worse if it was unnaturally coloured on the top side. I didn't like this colourisation, I looked faded, rotten and withered, even when I felt good.

Yet it was better to look like this, especially now when I wasn't in my safety home and stay hidden could keep me out of trouble. If Sonya was hunting now, then other pokemon would be too. I hoped that she wouldn't catch any eeveelution, it wouldn't be only horrible to watch, but also the plan of using short would lose any chance to succeed.

The forest wasn't completely silent, cold gusts of wind from time to time were whizzing between almost naked tree branches, silent rustles, slight and random moves of the poor overgrown or changing shades. They were reminding me that I wasn't alone. Even if these pokemon were probably small, and from the very end of the whole food chain, their presence was keeping me highly alerted, intently listening, trying to imagine trials they were walking depending on the sounds I was hearing. The darkness of the night hid everything from my view, besides the closest environment and shapes of bigger objects.

I napped, I didn't know how long I was asleep, but it still was dark. Rhythmic steps awoke me, they were closing in my direction. From the sound, I judged that it was a quadrupled and it could be Sonya, her large paws made a specific sound of something much bigger than she was, but they also weren't filled with heaviness. However I expected more from her, even I knew that steps should be sporadic, so for other listeners, they wouldn't make any sense. But maybe she didn't find it necessary, the night was her dominion. I couldn't see her, but I heard that she should be now visible to me, or she would be during the day. Only after a closer look, I found some moving shadow that could be somehow familiar to Absol.

"Boo," whispered the voice straight into my ear, at the same time pinning me to the ground with a heavy paw, preventing my sudden jump. She giggled and lied next to me.

"I thought that I would melt with the environment better," I hissed, still with a nerve in my voice.

"You were, but those moving ears demasked you, with that white colour they seem to emit its light," she said. I completely forgot that my ears also have the white bottom, which was its front, and I was just moving them in all direction, thinking that I was invisible putting them down only during the nap.

"Well, now it is better," Sonya said when my ears went down from embarrassment, but I kept them this way acting as if it was planned. She was laying so close to me, that from her mouth I could smell the odour of food, the hunt must have succeeded.

"Did you find anything interesting around?" I asked, keeping my voice low.

"Hmm, not much, from tracks and scents I can say that there is no pokemon we should be afraid of in the area, it's filled with pokemon that are too weak to live in any other better place than this. It's annoying, I like to catch something in the size of a meal, not running after niblets," she whispered back. "However places like this have their predators too, from the tracks it's an ekans or something similar, the track wasn't clean, also I always find it hard to recognise marks of something that doesn't have limbs. Though they shouldn't be a real danger, however, it would be a pity if some poison type would bite you. Had you ever experience with poison?"

"Yeah, when umbreon are nervous than on its fur appear some poison, I once breathed in one scent," I remembered the event from Serge's den.

"And how did you feel later? Did you feel confused or have a headache?" she inquired.

"I passed out for at least a day, I am not sure, I don't remember most of it, my friends were rescuing me" I answered honestly.

"For at least a day after just smelling it? Well, you are supposed to be vulnerable to the poison, but that can mean that one bite could be your last." I couldn't see her face, but I guessed that my answer worried her. I couldn't decide what I was thinking about her. Was she already my friend, or was she with me just because of her promise or was there even a third reason? Sometimes she was friendly, tempting with her shape and nice words, other times it seemed that she wanted to kill me, and even other times she wasn't caring at all.

"One moment you seem to care, another moment you treat me as if you would like to just leave me. What's with all these sudden changes?" I questioned, irritated and was immediate silences by a paw, as I hadn't lowered my voice this time. "Sorry, but what is the point of this all bipolar personality?" I whispered as I was only able to.

"Bipolar?" she frowned.

"Yes bipolar, it's very hard to recognise when I have to deal with grumpy and angry Agaar or with the bit nicer Sonya," I said.

"Oh, so that's how you see this? Don't worry, I am not crazy." she pushed back.

"You know that wasn't what I meant!" I said, and she sighed taking a while to look.

"Would you be able to say why you helped me for the first time? You could have left me there, but you healed me instead, not knowing what I will do when I get my strength back. Then you helped me for a second, third and fourth time, you shamed me multiple times."

"Shamed you multiple times?! Sorry that I saved your life!" I tried to whisper but ended with some kind of pitched hiss.

"Getting help from the weaker pokemon is a shame, it means that you are not able to defend on your own, but I am only helping you get back so I can get my pride back! Also, there are too many weird things happening since our first meeting to let you go alone now."

"Still, I can't understand why you can't be just honest."

"Because it's the way I used to be." She spat, and rested her head on the ground, not facing me, visibly wanted to quit this conversation. However I was now even more sure of my theory, she didn't fit her type. It wasn't something rare, eeveelutions also sometimes chose wrongly or had evolved unplanned, I was an example, though I had never planned to become leafeon.

"When I saw you wounded and dying I didn't think what you would be able to do when I heal you, I was lost and alone so instinct guided me and I helped," I said, nuzzling her friendly.

I wanted to lay my trust in her, not be afraid, to be left behind or betrayed when the occasion strike. She was opening herself only a little bit, not enough to allow me to call ourselves truly friends.

"Instincts don't work like that, they would order you to end me, eat or be eaten. Ever heard about that?" she answer back.

"I heard but. . . do you know the taste of blackberry in the sunny morning?" I asked, suddenly changing the theme. I hoped to knock the thought out of her.

"N... no, what kind of question is that?"

"It is bitter, you swirl your tongue and your whole body is shocked by spasm, you regret that you tried, that the oval shape and deep colour made you eat it. But just as the sensation passes, you take another one to feel the same once again, and you know what? It's absolutely the same, third, fifth, sixteenth, I can't count to a higher number but they are all the same, bitter and unsavoury. However, you still take another one from the spreading bush and eat it with enjoyment. You know that you can look for sweet presentable fruits that are nearby but you stay and keep eating. Do you know this feeling?" I said, staring into the darkness before me.

"No, I don't eat plants, I prefer meat," she said.

You fucking dumb shit, you are my blackberry!

I sighted. I somehow felt suddenly tired.

"That's your instincts, I am a grass-type and we see life a bit differently. It's not blood and flesh you see, heart beating or breath you hear, even the sun's ray can be a life. If one ends, only sadness stays. You are not connected, so you don't see it this way, every type has its core that change depends on species,"

"The wounds I got there were made by a grass-types, how would you explain it? Why do you think that you can know something about it?"

"I lived all my life with a bunch of creatures that are one big mix of types, each of them lives in its small world it created, not aware of the worlds others created. No matter how long would I stay with my umbreon or espeon friend, I won't become them, but I become aware that my point of view is just one of many. The grass-types you met hadn't a chance to learn a different point of view, and knew only one that they were and probably are living," I actually guessed, I didn't know why they behaved like that, maybe I wasn't fitting my type because I was cursed by a culture of my pack? "How was it in your group?"

She lifted her head from her paws and sighed heavily.

"You are a good and brave eeveelution Zar, but you won't console me," she said with a tired voice. "We have different nature, mine is to defend my past with claws and fangs, so stop pushing."

"Brave?" I mumbled, not believing.

"Yes, it's not something common to get near absol on your own not forced will. I wasn't born yesterday, I know the opinions about my species and I live with it. We don't even tolerate ourselves, so why others would tolerate us? It doesn't matter. You should sleep, the night won't be long and when the sun rises, that is your watch."

I hadn't anything more to say, I wasn't brave enough to risk, and with a feeling of loss, I placed myself in comfortable position trying to hide the white parts of my leaves, also on my ears, I tried to sleep.

* * *

It felt like a blink of the eye when Sonya woke me up with a strong jolt, I didn't even yawn before she curled up and close her eyes.

 _Why was the ground more comfortable every morning than at any evening?_

I stood up and shook myself, getting an aggressive growl from an absol in response, but she wasn't motivated enough to do more. I forgot about the dew I had on myself, and with which I splashed her. Giving her some space, I walked away to stretch. Then I checked the area, Sonya chose a really good spot, we were hidden almost from every direction from the view, but also from the stronger wind by the slight depression in the terrain.

How long would Sonya need to sleep? What was I supposed to do in the meantime? I couldn't just sit in place and wait. Or I could and wouldn't mind, but I hadn't a willingness to laze around now.

I slowly paced forward in an irregular circle around our hiding spot, finding the scent of a pokemon I heard in the night. Despite my earlier guessing, they were some distance away and I was unnecessarily worried about them, they wouldn't notice me even if I wasn't camouflaged. Yet again, I was surprised how good my hearing was.

Living in a pack I didn't need to depend on it too often.

However, even if I had fun wandering around listening to surrounding checking my hearing from the different distances, after doing it half of the sun's way through the sky it bored me completely. I returned to our temporary hiding and waited until Sonya woke up. Moreover, there were no signs that she would wake up anytime soon, so I helped her a little by 'not trying to be silent'. I spun around trying to catch some wind in my tail so it could make a whizzing sound, with the damaged tail it wasn't as easy as before, but I succeed a few times. It was a long time, but I finally noticed a slight movement in the absol.

"Oh! You finally awaken!" I exclaimed loudly, imitating surprise.

"Fuck," she mumbled silently, heavily breathing out the air and opening her eyes, but she stayed laying not even lifting her head from the comfortable embrace of her front paws.

"Come on, time to get up!" I walked to her and nudged her, accidentally leaving a brown mark of my pads on her white fur. She didn't notice.

"Mhm," she purred, but stayed motionless on the ground, and I felt that she was getting close to sleep again.

 _Dark types and their mornings in the middle of the day..._

I nudged her a few more times, drawing a strange figure on her flank, I didn't know what it was even supposed to be, but it ended as clumsily made orbs set in an 'S' figure.

"Okay! Stop it! I'll get up!" barked Sonya, getting up, I was about to place another dirty mark on her, but due to the movement, my paw went through the all already made orbs, connecting them in a serpentine line.

Sonya made her daily stretches and rubbed her scythe on the nearby tree, grumbling something about the lack of some hard rock. I didn't like the damage done to the tree bark, but something was telling me that arguing with her about it wouldn't be a good idea right now. The atmosphere around the absol was tensed in incomprehensible irritation. Maybe I should let her sleep a little more?

After some more of Sonya's private morning needs, we were on the journey again, accompanied only by the loud, unmasked yawns of the dark type and sounds of the windy forest.

My morning energy happened to pass out, lowering my focus and making the environment less important to me. Besides being noon, today, as usual during this season, the sun was small and weak, too weak to power me up for more than short snap out from time to time. Sonya also stayed tired, keeping her head and tail low, guiding peacefully and slowly. I caught myself each time I snapped out from the brainless walk that my eyes kept following one certain hypnotising point before me.

What am I thinking about? But my imagination was already playing tricks on me, behaving like a completely independent creature returning and mixing the views of today and yesterday's white-winged... beauty. To my surprise, it quickly convinced me that dreaming and remember couldn't hurt, but nicely pass some time. However, the second part of me didn't want these images, wanted to bury them deep somewhere at the back of my mind. Was I so easy? Just one smile, one word, one look was enough to fill my mind? But I wasn't so desperate! Or was my instinct telling me that I am and should try to use every, even the less noticeable, trace that someone gave me some attention? Maybe I was just wishing for it?

But I saw her yesterday, in this different look and it was beautiful and only blind could say differently. The aggressive sharp blades, the slickness of the long fur, proud glow of white and this surrounding chilling aura.

 _Wasn't it an act of betrayal on Cera?_

But when did I laid my loyalty in Cera? Or was it closer to jolteon Navia? Maybe if I couldn't feel freely next to them, then maybe none of them? Why was it so hard?

I stumbled upon the rock, snapping out, I looked at Sonya, straight in her eyes as she turned her head. She only raised her eyebrow and turned away. She was much more awake now than she was this morning, or the time that she considered as the morning. She hesitated for a moment with choosing the way, but continued forward. Above the trees, I could see that we were slowly going into a mountain range already covered in white snow, but not completely, the mountains looked scratched by giant claws, there were places where the grey rock was too steep-up for the snow to lay on them.

"So, what are you doing in moments like this when there is nothing to do?" I asked, as I couldn't just walk without busying my mind with something, and to stop her yawns. They were making me yawn too. "You said that you wander quite a lot, you need to somehow fill your time."

Before answering, Sonya shook her head, correcting the fringe that kept covering her eye, and sped the walk up to a jog.

"I am thinking," she said.

"About?" I asked again after she didn't continue.

"Many things." Again, short answer.

"Wow, that proud to think about many things," I taunted, irritated.

"I wonder how you were able to lose yourself so much, as to end so far away from the place last known to you," Sonya said. "I haven't had a moment lately to think about it, but do you even know how long it has been since you were in your home last time?"

It all was weird, like my memories were covered by fog, faces unclear, I wasn't sure if I remember them, or just remember that I had to remember.

Would my home just be my imagination? No, that was a ridiculous idea, even Sonya confirmed that she knows the place I was describing, so it had to exist, so it had to be my goal, so it had to be my home.

"I, I never thought that more than one day could have passed," I said.

"It isn't possible to do such a distance in one day, if it would be, then we already would reach the destination, instead, we still have some of the roads ahead."

"Is it so far?" I grumbled.

"Yes and no, it is not so far away thanks to going through the hangman's forest, but the road isn't easy." Something was telling me that 'easy' wasn't describing correctly what was ahead. "You already saw the mountains range ahead? You can call it thirteen peaks if you want to add it to your Twelve-whatever-named-home. To the south, there is a mountain pass, and behind it, there is a small pack of eeveelutions I told you about. However, on the opposite side of the mountains are huge ruins of what once was a city. You know what the city is?"

"No, I have no idea," I answered truthfully.

"A concentration of humans, with a concrete ground and high buildings made of glass, but now in ruins," Sonya explained and I nodded, it still wasn't clear to me what 'concrete', 'ruin' or 'glass' is, but Sonya commonly says words without a meaning, and doesn't explain them, even asked.

"So how it supposed to make our walk longer?" I asked.

"It's a long story..."

"Then say it, we have a lot of time before we get there," I cut her off, before she could put the subject aside.

"Eh, okay. So, it wasn't as long ago as it may look. Besides the human's globalisation, this one city was very distinct from any other. Some say that's because of the distance, others that's because this city was different from any other. People use electricity as a power for most of their devices, not all but most. In this place, it got replaced by some secret energy similar to the kind dark-types use for their powers," I was listening to her, trying to somehow get along and guess all new terms she was throwing at me and to glue together all this information in some way reasonable, but her words were entering my mind through one ear and leaving it with another. How could any pokemon living in the wilderness understand it? Sonya, however, without any bother if she was giving any sense to me, continued speaking about burning liquid inside of metallic rolling things, complicated "buildings", "shops", "equality" and "clothes". It was kind of stupid, who would need all of this, what was the reason?

"How you know all of this?" I asked when her story become nothing more than mentioning more and more mystic elements about the alternative evil world, times of the end of the world and more common for dramas, stuff. She was making it more and more unbelievable and imagined, like a fairy tale.

"Don't ask, it's the past," she snapped suddenly, cutting her monologue and getting in her 'don't annoy me or you would regret it' state.

"Why are you avoiding it so much? I am not asking about anything sensitive or suggest you cry about it now, I just would like to learn something about you," I said.

"The past is dead, it's what faded and won't come. There is no sense in talking about it," she barked, getting angry. I was surprised by her sudden change of mood, what was the thing she had to hide? She was behaving as if this information would make the sky fall. It wasn't me who banished her from her pack. Besides, she was talking about it peacefully earlier. Would it be then something before the packed event? That would mean that she only joined it for some time and the real feelings were placed somewhere elsewhere. Maybe it wasn't anything big and only her dark type of nature made her grow it into something problematic. "Doesn't matter, forget about it," she added, after a moment.

But how I could forget about the past? What were we without it? Only fallen leaves carried by the wind of time, aimlessly spread and pushed through the world. The past couldn't change the wind, but could give us meaning, could become the tree of the fallen leaves, could become a benchmark of our life and show the way we are going or what leaves are we. It is what makes us who we are, creating our personality, gives meaning to the places, to the roots. Life without a past is like life without a part of your soul, every progress lays in the past, repeating it, again and again, every time with better effect. Like learning to walk, who would try to walk if they didn't know that someone already walks? Who would try to eat if no one never before tried to eat? There is always the option to wait for the accident that makes you do some progress, but the past is much better. Whatever happened to Sonya in the past can happen again in the future, if she forgets she can repeat it, maybe now it would be even worse?

I tightened my mouth from the anger, I was proud of every piece of my past and for some reason, I felt that Sonya's meant a lot too.

I shook my head and left it for later, maybe it just wasn't the right time for it.

I followed the absol silently, looking into the dirt and grass below my paws. My mind was somewhere far away from me, in my home. I thought about the new den I needed to build. I will build it differently now, not in the middle but somewhere on sidelines, closer to the river or other water. The entrance will be hidden between the roots of the willow trees, so it would be protected from water. Willows are crazy and drink a lot of water, they usually grow on swamps, its leaves are small, so they allow me to catch some sun, but also provide some shade if it gets too hot. I would need to dig between the tree's roots, creating sensible rooms, but at the same not cause damage to the tree. Later, I would gather some flat rocks to lay. as a path from the entrance, so I wouldn't be taking all the mud inside every time I would come back. I would need to find something I could warm my den up with. Leaves and grass dry off with time, becoming useless, and I am too lazy to replace it with some new ones every few days. I may use some flareon or umbreon fur, but it was always a problem gathering it, and it would be irritating for a few weeks to smell strangers in my den. Also, the fur is very light so it would be flying around with every move. Besides that, I thought that after sleeping in the fur layer I would wake up all covered in it.

Maybe if I dig a bit deeper, made a layer of fur and then cover it with rocks and sand, then it would work? Oh, and I would need a lot of golden-white sand from the lagoon, rough dirt isn't very nice to lay on. If I already want so many things in my new den, then maybe I should try to make more than just one room. But what would be the use of them? One for sleeping, this one needs to be the warmest place of the den. The second one would be for...? Maybe also for sleeping? Somewhere closer to the entrance where it would be a bit colder in the hot days of the sun season. I always hated waking up in heat, as my previous den was so small that it heated up very quickly in the morning. I would need to have a lot of stones in that room so it would stay colder for longer. What about a third one? I felt that three is somehow a fair number of rooms but I hadn't an idea what could I do there.

Though I wasn't sure if it was possible, but maybe with some help? I usually help Cyrus with healing, but from time to time there were wounds I couldn't heal just in one moment, there was always a problem with eeveelutions with wounds like that. I needed to go to their dens one by one in my free time, or rather be dragged to them by this sylveon. If I had a place where I could 'store' eeveelutions to heal, it would be much easier. It would be even possible to heal two or three of them at the same time! The problem was that a room that could house three eeveelutions plus me and still have some space so everyone would feel comfortable required a lot of work and was beyond my possibilities. I didn't know how to warm up such huge space, as I rather thought about using it in colder seasons or how to make a ceiling that wouldn't fall down, but let's consider that Serge would help me and he knew such things, then there was the problem with the pack leader, who won't allow me to have such a big den.

At the memory of Sogot, I felt lucky that I didn't return to the pack so fast. If I remember correctly there was the punishment I had to do, but I simply forgot.

I shook my head once again. I had a problem with focus today. Leaving my worries for later, I made a step forward, to find out that we finally got to the mountain ridge, we were standing in the last line of trees and before us was only a large and dark tunnel, that was like a large worm penetrating the mountain inside out. Through the tunnel, I could see a dim light covered by the smoke that seemed to be inside of the mountain. It was oddly familiar to something, but I had never been here before, maybe just the mountain were similar to the types I used to see around the pack.

"Before we go any further, I need to go for a while," said Sonya, making an ashamed grimace. "Don't go anywhere, and don't go into this mountain without me, it's dangerous!"

"Number one or two?" I asked.

"Fuck off, you don't need to know," she spat, and without a word, walked away, to a distance she considered I wouldn't be able to hear her and I wished it would be the distance I couldn't hear her.

I tried to busy my mind on something other than hearing Sonya, and the first thing I looked at was the round and regular entrance of the cave with the light on the second end. It was weirdly fascinating, it was going up and down like a tiny yellow flame, sometimes it was getting stronger and bigger, other times I was losing it with my sight. The light was so absorbing and mind filling, I felt somehow happy by just looking at it.

I was disturbed by the change of taste in my mouth, my tongue was invaded by nice, warm and a bit metallic taste. I licked my mouth and nose and found even more of this taste. I checked with my paw and now I was sure. I was nosebleeding. It wasn't for the first time, but it also didn't happen too often, maybe only closely after evolution.

I used the leaf on my forehead and inserted it into the bleeding nose hole, trying to stop the blood, unfortunately too deep. The tickling sensation turned into a sneeze that I tried to stop by burrowing my nose into my chest, but it didn't help and the sneeze came out. If I already looked terrible by not having enough time to fully heal my leaves with missing plates and fur so messed that my mom would burn it all and made me wait until it grows back, that now from the chest through whole bottom and the longest leaf on the forehead, I was covered in the dots of blood. My closest friends wouldn't recognise me in the state like this, I was just like a living nightmare. Only real cuts and wounds could make me look even worse.

With irritation and a curse, I put my leaf in my nose again, but now more carefully. I couldn't allow myself to bleed out and die here, it would the most stupid way to die I'd heard about. Would it be considered suicide if I bled out by the weak vein in my nose?

I waited until I stopped bleeding, before glancing at the flame again. It was so inviting.

I will just take a closer look, only a little closer. What was the difference if I would stand here or a few steps closer to the light?

I stepped forward into the dusk of the tunnel, the smell of the fumes increased and mixed with the smell of blood I had still in my nose, creating a disgusting combination of organic decomposing smoke and something I couldn't identify, but was kind of sweet. The leaves absorbed the smoke too, giving me a bit more information about what the air contained. Most of it was what left after burned wood, but some of it was new, I wasn't sure if this thing ever existed in nature.

I concentrated on the dim light at the second end of the way and tried to limit my breathing, depending mostly on the leaves through which I could filter the air. The ground here was hard, made of concentrated tiny gravel, not so hard like the rock, but also not soft. There were sharp irregular cracks from time to time, but the limited light didn't allow me to see more detail and the further inside I was, the less of light I had.

Great place for a trap. Those who enter the tunnel are on the open sight coming from the light side while those who wait inside are hidden in the dusk, and they don't even need to be dark-types, it could be any type hidden here. Before eyes adjust to the dark there was enough time for an ambush and the victim would never know what happened.

I shut my imagination down, these thoughts were making the hair on my back to stand up. I would be so doomed if something like that would happen. I could dodge some attack or answer with something simple, but this scenario wasn't giving me any chances of success, even screaming wouldn't do because who would help me? I was alone now.

At first, I thought it was just a very tight exit, but after a moment my last doubts disappeared. The light wasn't an exit, it was a reflection. Orthogonal reflection like a floating sheet of water was reflecting light from the entrance I used. I could see myself in it, my white parts were slightly shining with the light. I needed to admit that I looked surprisingly good with all these damaged leaves, a slight smile I was trying to keep on my face and slightly gleaming with light. Like one of my imagination of heroes of the stories. With the visible sights of tiredness that affected the look, but didn't affect the spirit. But the look was all I could share with my imagination of the mighty eeveelution. What was I doing? Why did this reflection make me worried so much? Was it because I looked so different than I used to? That I didn't used to see myself like that? With dirt in my fur, with darkened eyes, leaves out of the form. I had luck, all over this time, since I fell into the river I was living on the luck. Every day I was closer to death than I realised, I was improvising. Trying to grasp everything that was giving me a chance to come back home. Now I could see it in the reflection.

The changes had begun. I was changing, every day I was further from what I used to be. How much would I change before reaching my home? Would it be my home anymore?

I can't go back in time, the Zar that was taken by the river will stay here in the wilderness, the question is who will return? Would my friends even recognise me?

I closed my eyes, trying to get rid of the dark thoughts. I was, am and will be Zar, the heat, ardour and cinder in green appearance. Whatever I would return to it always would be me.

 _Even like that?_

I opened my eyes looking straight into the blue and green, brown and grey eyes of the leafeon that was all covered in white. Its fur was white, his skin was white, only the eyes were showing a different colour. My colours, from times before lightly brown layer covered my eyes. Before my tail was a long leaf and when my fur was brown. Before evolution, they had more detail back then, back then my eyes were light blue on the edges turning into light grey in the middle to end as weakly visible green in the middle, with few small brown dots in the left one. Some called it blue-khaki, others just as grey colours. But I left them without the name, for me, there was no such colour, no scheme that could describe them. There were mine, one and original.

It was always so complicated, as an eevee, I always believed I was different than everyone and every mark that was making me, at last, a little different was becoming my hidden obsession. Few single dark hairs on the back, few yellow on the sides and the eyes. The hardest question was: what makes me different and what's only my wish. I wanted to keep track of my personality, I didn't want to become arrogant or considered myself above others, but the question was raising questions, I lived the world of doubts, what part of me was me, what was just temporary though. When adults have two personalities it doesn't surprise anyone, one for strangers, one for friends or my mate, but when I started to have multiple faces still as a pup, how I know which one was my real one? Maybe I learned just to act. Was I the only one who seeks the truth? Or am I the only one who hadn't found it yet? What did it mean to be Zar?

 _What did it mean to be anyone?_

When you are one of many with the same stuff, it's easy to become someone else and to be someone. When you are one and original you see many roads before you and are lost in wonders which one you should follow. Maybe you already decided wrongly and are on the wrong road?

It was all turning to the one simple question, the question everyone heard about once. What's the meaning of life? Is it death? Reproduction? Fighting and survival? Was I just a continuation of those who were lost and hoped that the future would bring them answers? Just forward with hope that something finally happens?

"What's it means to live? What does life mean?" I asked my reflection, I didn't expect an answer, I just felt touched by the moment.

I looked once again in my white reflection, deprived of a leafeon's colourisation. It was the leafeon Sonya saw in the dark forest, it was the one I saw in the water on the underground. Who is, or was he? Is it alive or just a ghost?

"Am I dead again? Have I to find a way back again?" I asked again the reflection. Maybe it was some of my image of me? Of what I was before leafeon?

It was all a great irony, me, always wanting to be different evolving into the type no one was before, making my life harder. But how it even happened that this way of evolution never was used before in my pack? There was a lot of eevees and eeveelutions and no one ever evolved that way but me. I wasn't trying, my actions were supposed to push me into fire-type, eventually, dark-type due to staying long at night, but parents were always helping me in my way to flareon, a creature I once considered as the best.

The cave seemed to light up, the ground tightened and became smooth, from the rock pended bushy grass and I suddenly found myself in the forest. I sat down as my head seemed to spin and I was losing the balance, I felt confused.

The white leafeon become more real, he sat close next to me. He was warm and his fur was nice. He wasn't bothered that I was all dirty and that his fur can be dirtied too.

"You like to talk with yourself, don't you," the leafeon said, and his voice rang through the forest and my mind like an echo. The voice was nice and friendly, encouraging to talk.

"Yeah, am I only one?" I asked and caught myself on this that I was only asking, again and again.

"I don't know, maybe. You think that others also need to face their worries, they just picture them differently. You are split, you can't agree with yourself, doubt in things you think and do. You would like to say that having worries makes you smart, above those who only follow others, but at the same time, you wonder if considering yourself as smart isn't stupid because those who are stupid think that only their way of thinking is right. But all of it turns into one simple question everyone heard at least once. What's the meaning of life? You know the answer and answering yourself for another time won't make you feel better about it. Just start using your definitions!" the white leafeon said, and his leaf tail rapidly flopped in the air.

"It's hard, it's always easier to say other's what they should do…"

"This talk takes you anywhere, but not where you want to go. What is worrying you so much about your definition of the meaning of life? There are millions of creatures that want to know that from the thousands of years. What holds you so much for giving them an answer?"

"There were so many before me, it's not possible that I say the sentence unspoken, word undiscovered or the thought no one thought about earlier. I am the generation of repeat, I was born when the pack was formed and achieved limits of its expansion, I couldn't see its beginning or end. I have to just live and even if I found something new, I would be shouted down by others who build this world. Shouted down by the past that still is alive and still has something to say. In weird times I have to live, where truth and lies mix with each other, when 'old' is creating the 'new' and when unit seems to mean a lot and nothing at the same time."

"What's the meaning of life?" repeated the white leafeon

"Even if I say it, what is the point of it? My definition is empty, it answers without the answer! Everyone likes when it's simple, when the definition doesn't leave any space for thinking or interpretation. Everyone wants to just hear and immediately know. I never was the saddest or happiest creature alive, so what can I know, what my definition can stand for? The biggest tragedy I survived was losing my favourite stick or having to eat something I don't like. Who would even listen to someone like that? How can I say anything about life to someone who lost someone loved? I am just not allowed to do it!"

"No you are not, but standards are made by minds like yours. Does someone need to set the normality in a place, who can do it better who never was on the edge? You will be criticised and hated, but time forgives you. When emotions fall down and only cold calculation will be visible, you find out you had right. So, what is life?"

I hesitated, this wasn't happening. All of this was just my imagination, the white leafeon couldn't be me. Or I was him?

"Stop wondering about it, my white friend is coming for us, but her heart is black, this what is black can be easily lit up if you know how to start the light. But before she finds you, what is life? Do you remember what you found out?"

I remembered, how I could forget? It was hope in hopeless words, definitions generally are known but unspoken. But how could I be sure that I say anything that never was spoken? But even if, fuck it, my mouths my words. I took the air in my mouths.

"Life. It is the river that flows at every time of the day, it's the sun that rises and shines for everyone, it's the blue or cloudy sky, it's the green grass you walk on and the meat you have in your mouth. It's what makes you natural and what makes you a continuation of those who were before you. Life is the path of chances and those who we meet, our opportunities. We come and go to this world without anything, the point is to leave a mark that others can follow. Then death is an only short moment of pain and life is eternal. The meaning of life? There is no meaning until you make some."


	12. CH12 The City of Ruined Ideals

I told to him to stay here, I told to him to stay and wait, made it clear to him to stay away from the cave, and what did he do? He just walked into the tunnel alone. I was already angry because my butt hurt, as if it was ripped apart, and now this stupid vegetable didn't listen to me! Though stomach problems were only my fault, because being mega evolved, I was always hungry and in the bigger form I could eat more, I forgot that after returning to normal, the food I ate wasn't getting smaller with me.

I checked once again, the patch of smell that belonged to Zar and it, once again, showed me that this leafeon went straight into the dark entrance. Devourer.

It wasn't just a cave where a creature like leafeon could lose the way in the darkness. It was a place where everyone could lose their mind, soul or memory. I personally knew a ninetales that completely forgot her past, she was now just an empty shell wandering, just like me, looking for something, anything. I didn't forget what I once was, but I also didn't really try. Maybe it would be easier to live if my memory wouldn't reach further than this one cloudy dawn? But on the other paw, the knowledge I gained before this dawn had saved me more than once.

But I had a task now. I had to help Zar find his home. Why was I doing it anyway? One little and weak leafeon lost his pack, which was for him his whole life, and now a strong and knowledgeable absol will help him. Ohh, how cute, the lonely white puff finally does something good~.

Why was I still here? Why didn't I abandon him just after he brought me the stone from grass-types clearing? Was I really that weak? Zar was arrogant and irritating, throwing his opinion left and right, commenting on everything, not really caring if I thought differently or that I could disagree. But I was still here. No surprise that I was kicked by Mai, I was just psychically weak, I shouldn't be like that.

I turned to the forest with my back to the cave, but I couldn't resist looking back at the entrance.

 _Oh, Come on! Just leave him!_

Why was it so hard? I had to admit that Zar broke the scheme I was living, but it wasn't enough! He would need to be someone more important if I had to care about him! Yet, I was still here.

Was it destiny? I wasn't sure if I fully believe in something like destiny, it was hard to negate or agree with something like that. Though it just takes a group of minds that believe that something exists to confuse the rest.

Maybe was it this second part of me that couldn't stand loneliness, that needed attention, regular contact with other creature, some heat. But Zar wasn't warm, he was neutral like a tree or any other plant!

I made few steps forward, but my paws grew heavy with every step.

 _Was I often so dumb? Obviously, he wasn't warm, he was a grass type, the kind of creature which depends on the warmth given to it by the environment._

How did he call it? Bipolar personality? Was I really spit in two? Agaar and Sonya? According to Zar, Agaar was this worse part of me, always angry and aggressive. But I never was aggressive, I was just... impulsive.

"Ahh," I sighed and sat down looking in my paws, my heart suddenly felt so empty and keep sucking my soul.

By wandering for these ten years, what had I gained? I hadn't friends, place to live, territory. For what was it? Was I wasting all the life I worked for myself? Did I escape one wasted life to waste another? I was going from one place to another, again and again. I was strong enough to fight for territory, but it was my scheme, to keep moving. It wasn't that bad, I saw a lot of the world, heard and learn a lot, but after some time I started to see aimlessness of travelling like that. I wasn't collecting information because I needed them, I wasn't going from place to place because I was looking for a home. It was sometime my excuse, but whenever I went, I never planned to stay. What did I suppose to do?

If I leave Zar now, what do I return to? To empty roads, noiseless hours of walking, to the new destinations that look all the same. I meet and pass hundred of pokemon, just to pass another hundred. I was closing myself. Maybe if I already found this one irritating leafeon that tried to be a friend, then I should stay? Even if everything I get from this journey is only a pain, it is still worth it, in the end, it's better to feel pain than nothing at all. His appearance once made me change into my winged form. Maybe it was enough to stay with him, even for longer?

"Maybe you should have a fuck? It is very relaxing and mind clearing," spoke someone behind me back. I spun around, lowering my scythe already burning in concentrated dark energy, able to cut any possible tissue. I hadn't heard anyone coming and my hearing was something I could depend on.

Behind me, next to the tree was sitting a creature, it was shining in such light I couldn't see what was it.

"Show yourself!" I barked angrily. The light lightened and to my eyes came appearance of white shining leafeon. The same I saw in the forest that saved me from the lycanrocs.

Why does he remind me so much of Zar?

I never thought that Zar was really weak, rather that he was playing weak, but in reality, he had a strength I couldn't see. I saw the appearance of the white leafeon more than once since we met, and I thought that Zar was making it, but his innocent behaviour made me doubt it. I mean, if anyone would possess such a power as the white leafeon showed defeating lycanrocs then he would require respect and wouldn't be afraid of the wilderness, like Zar seemed to be. Also, I am freaking dark-type, he wouldn't be able to false me! Unless he would be another dark-type, or very, I mean very-very, great grass type.

Experienced grass-types were even worse than psychic-types, from psychic I could defend, but grass-types could make the whole world to work for them and could play with mind even more effectively than psychic, creating spores and mist able to cloud the right thinking and control thoughts, rise illnesses. I got a shiver at the thought that something could go through my nose and grew into my body. Skilled grass-types ruled wilderness, weak ones were killed before they could learn more.

"What you are?!" I spatt angrily, ready to go on the offensive. However, the leafeon seemed completely relaxed, making himself comfortable next to the tree. "Why can I see you?"

"I dunno. I wish I would be in better place instead of here too, this ground is quite hard and no one has cared about this grass for years! Damn, such thin blades! such poor colour! How can I even look at this grass!?" said the leafeon, rolling on the back and forth.

I lowered my guard a bit, shutting down the dark sphere that enveloped my horn. "Why can I see you?" I repeated the question.

"Well, I saw that you were close to leaving me-I mean Zar, so I needed to do something."

"Me-you mean Zar? I am not so stupid to miss something like that!" I said, slowly walking around the leafeon cornering him. Not that I really wanted to attack him just yet, I just felt it was a good occasion to make my position dominant here.

"And I am not so stupid to make a mistake of this kind, you see. I am not Zar, yet I am him. Heh, our relation is quite complicated, I am not a different creature, yet, not the same but to make it easier you can call me Destiny."

"I don't believe in destiny," I spat, I wasn't thinking much about his words, I couldn't allow myself to lose focus.

"You don't? Not so long ago you said that you believe in destiny and honour, hmm, how proud," reminded Destiny.

"Saying that you have rules in your life you follow makes others respect you more, but no. I don't believe in destiny," I barked.

"It's not very surprising, you are from the group that doesn't have any," he said, still relaxed and seemed to completely ignore that I could just attack him and he wouldn't even have time to stand up.

"I don't have any group!"

The leafeon looked at me with a concerned stare before continuing.

"You really are dumb, I meant a group of those who don't have a destiny, creatures that blindly live their life and aren't important to the world. I would say 'food category' if it makes it easier for you to understand. However, these grey creature from time to time, by complete accident, meet these whose life has a meaning, clumsy bumping into them and changing their course. Do you know what happened?"

"I didn't enter the cave!" I almost screamed, being afraid that cursed tunnel invaded my mind. Maybe I had already lost it? Destiny breathed deeply and shook his head in disappointment.

"With who do I need to cooperate? Years of friendship with an intelligent espeon and subtle-minded umbreon, but when needed... eh. Please focus for a moment and stop preparing this blade for me. I am not real, I can die, but not like that. Look, I am not material," Destiny said and phased through the tree like a ghost. "You see the world we live is dying, slowly losing it's 'normality', fragment after fragment, each bigger and bigger. That's why there appear some anomalies, you already met two of them, one was in the dark forest to which I, I mean Zar was so afraid to go. That was the anomaly of the dead, these anomalies appear randomly, sudden change of weather, untypical environment, sudden evolutions, pokemon knowing abilities they shouldn't know or having extra features. Generally, everything can happen, if this comparison makes it easier for you, it like a video game with a broken code."

"How, how you can know I..."

"Played games? Because you know it too, you see, an anomaly touched you and Zar too. It's not normal for Destiny to walk around and talk to others. I used to be a series of events, not this, what I am now. I don't really know what I should think about myself, but returning to the point. You share a destiny with Zar now, I know as much as you know and that's why I can speak with you and I guess that I have to guide you two."

"You can tell Zar anything!" I barked angry, though that someone would know everything I knew was horrifying.

"Hey, I am Destiny, not a solid state drive, I won't remember it, I am just guiding and now I am your destiny too, not that I enjoy it, but your life starts to have a meaning. You should like it." Destiny smirked. "If my appearance deceives you so much that you think I am Zar, then I can change it."

The leafeon become foggy, his shape grew larger and after a second there was... me, deprived of any different colours than white.

"And what are you supposed to do if I won't do what you want? What if I go against m..." it was hard for me to call him 'my destiny'"...against you?"

"Then I affect your internal emotions and state of mind, so stress and depression make you fulfil your destiny," he said, still keeping his happy and relaxed tone, or she since now she had my look and voice "Look, just like that!"

The world spun and the blackness enveloped my sight, it took only a second before my dark-type senses adjusted my eyes to the darkness allowing me to see again. I was in the tunnel, close to the exit, next to me was laying a leafeon, Zar. He was attacked by spasm and his eyes were open, but I knew he wasn't awake. His open muzzle was slowly drooling saliva. My attention was focused on his biggest leaves, that were blinking in the light like a broken neon sign.

Yes, I was weak. Zar broke the scheme of my life, maybe if I could meet him in a former life, everything could be different from now. But maybe already I met someone like him, and just missed it?

"Come on brat, you can't just lie in the middle of the tunnel," I said, and I took Zar by the back of his neck like a pup and carried him to the exit of the cave. Looking back I saw small dancing flame behind me, far away in the deepest of the tunnel.

I wasn't just fulfilling a task of helping Zar to get home or destiny, I was fulfilling the hole I created in my soul, I just needed to have a friend, even if I thought that I didn't need anyone. What's the sense of life if it's not shared with anyone? I could conquer a world, but it would mean nothing if I couldn't have anyone by my side. I just to had to be more of Sonya than Agaar, simple as that.

* * *

I woke up on the hard stony ground, my mind seemed like cover in the fog. The stone was cold as fuck, but I somehow didn't feel cold at all. I could say that it was even warm, which was weird because I was freezing even in the slight wind in the morning. Yes, I hate every cold in the morning, my leaves were losing all warmth extremely fast cooling my whole body. It wasn't easy to open my eye as my mind required a longer sleep, but when I finally opened up, my view stayed the same, dark, as I saw having my eyes closed. It was night, my head was aching and I was very thirsty. Also something heavy was laying on my chest making it harder to breathe. Too lazy to stand up I tried to move a little to lose whatever was making my breathing harder. Then I realised that I was in limited space and something on my chest was just one of few a things that were lying next to me.

Now, much more awake I open both of my eyes and looked around. I was enveloped in the hug, very similar one which small eevees gives to the mother's tail falling asleep but now I was in a role of the tail and the one that was hugging me was Sonya.

It was very uncomfortable, first, it felt weird to be hugged by creature slightly but still bigger than me, it was a miracle that I wasn't cut by any of her blades and, it was Sonya.

Besides all my attempts to become friends, I knew that we weren't at best terms, we weren't enemies, we weren't friends, but hugging was far beyond the norm. I guessed that it wasn't planned, she fell asleep next to me, and due to strong instinct she got closer to the closest source of warm. I was sometimes falling asleep under a clear sky and waking up in the warm pile of leaves, so I guessed it was a similar thing now.

I tried, but I couldn't free myself. I couldn't even look around and orientate where we were without risking to cut my face on hers many blades. I felt like something warm move on my neck.

"Bleah! You are sleeping with open mouth!" I shouted at Sonya, but she didn't wake up. Moving a bit more, but still careful to avoid waking her up, I tried to make some distance, but I triggered her only to pull me closer. At least I made her to closed her muzzle, I sighed.

I was quick to fall in love. Paw, Cera, Navia, and now Sonya. Theoretically, I shouldn't even wonder about it and chose Cera without a second thought, we knew each other quite long, she put some effort and read my mind making moves I liked. But there was also Navia, there was something wrong with me that two meetings were enough to even consider that option, but she was cute and fit my imagination. Also, she was just close after her evolution, that meant she wasn't very skilled. Maybe it could be a disadvantage, but did I really wanted a mate who is master of her type? A relation with Cera could be all sweet and lovely, but every problem we could have, would be solved by her psychic. I couldn't feel good if I would have a mate like that. Hole in the den? Psychic fix it. Danger? Psychic solves it. Whatever it would happen Cera would be able to deal with it without even waking up. Everything would be done without even informing me that there was something to do.

Theoretically, it seemed to be great, it would be a peaceful and lazy life, but I already know that I would feel just bad. What kind of mate would I be if I wouldn't be needed to do anything? Even Cera would see that I don't make any worth to her. She could eventually limit her action, but it would be just acting. It would be intensive, but short love. I started to see a sense why strong should only mate with strong.

That's why Navia was even considered, she already showed me some attention, and her electric abilities were usable only in combat, we could create a well-working couple.

And that was when Sonya appeared, she hadn't any reasonable advantages besides incredible curves. Sometimes I felt that I fall in love, other times that I hate her, she was big unknown. I thought we were connected, but I was mistaking it for something different. Was it just my age, fact that I didn't see other eeveelutions or something real that I even was taking her in a count of mates? It was a horrible feeling, I was old enough to be aware of my desires and thoughts, yet I wasn't old enough to fully understand emotions that were affecting me.

If Cera suddenly appeared and hugged me I would probably consider her as 'the only one'.

The same with Navia, but it was Sonya who was hugging me now, it was so confusing. It was hard when I realised how hard it was, I started to wish to have an ability, just like Cera, to read another mind, even if Cera keeps saying she never used it on her friends.

I should focus just on 'now', stop consider Sonya as a 'way'. We were different species, not completely different but different. And... oh, I was so narcissistic thinking about myself as the only choice of three females! I was so narcissistic thinking that only I can have problems like these! What if all of them consider someone else over me? What if they consider someone else, not even taking me in the count? I could be just a training dummy, Cera could read my mind as she only wanted to check my reaction to whatever she said than clearing my memory and trying something else. I mean, I would never charge at her with objection like that, but what if? I didn't know a think about psychics, even those that didn't require psychic-type abilities, but simple word manipulation.

I should just stay silent, if anyone would want me, she would say, right? Though it was my role to strike a female!

Shyness, was it really my feature? Was it my character or a type? Why was I always lost in question? Why nothing could be simple?

I would like to lose myself again in a routine I used to live after evolution.

"Hrrrr!" came a snore, straight in my ear, followed by a click of the absol tongue before continuing silent sleep.

I looked in the black sky, all stars were full alight, the moonlight shyly showing silver swirls of the clouds. The sky visible from here was covered in the frame of white peaks, however, one light wasn't coming from the sky.

"How do I get along with it now?" I asked myself.

"I don't know or wait, oh, I actually know!" said Destinym standing out of my vision. "Or I don't know? It's hard to declare if I know or don't know if being your destiny I should guide you to the future, but at the same time, I don't know the future and need to depend on my knowledge of the current moment."

"Yeah, whatever. You always say that you are guiding me, but never say where I should go or what I should do. Whoever was choosing a destiny for me needed to give me a broken one," I said.

"No one chose Destiny. But Destiny is not used to functioning in form Destiny functions in now."

"But why leafeon? Does everyone have their own white version of themselves? You weren't taking any form earlier, and you are not real, so why do you look like me now?" I asked, getting him finally in my sight, he was standing just a few steps away. "I didn't recognise you when I saw you back there in the wood, running away from that thing, whatever it was."

"Well, I doubt that from all these random things that are happening all over the world there happened the same distortion as to you and your destiny, but about appearance, hehe," he smirked, before glowing a bit brighter and the second letter there was white foxy espeon standing in Destiny place.

"Is it better now?" he asked in Cera's voice, turning around and shaking his tempting butt with real professionalism.

"Please return to leafeon or kill me," I said, as I didn't believe what I just saw. I mean, the view was great, but the fact it was Destiny killed it completely.

"Well, I would be afraid if you would react differently," said Destiny, already as a leafeon. I ignored him and closed my eyes trying to get some sleep before Sonya woke up for good.

* * *

There I was, a tall and slim eevee in a the deep dark woods in the middle of the night, before me, bushes of thorns. My mind was telling me: no but I made a step forward anyway, it was so hard to resist, so new and so known feeling. The feeling of something lost that was finally found, but I didn't know what I lost or what I found. First thorns came into contact with my fur, they weren't sharp for me, they were soft and like mother cuddle her pups, thorns gently wrapped around my paws going further, painlessly penetrating the skin, going through muscles, reaching the heart and brain. Thorns grew into leaves replacing part of my fur. Gently broke my bones and the pieces rebuilt into a new skeleton. The leaves covered my eyes, and when I could look again I saw the world I didn't know.

It wasn't ground and plants, creatures and sky. It was life, current life, the life of those who passed and those whose time hadn't started yet. In the centre of the bush was a ball of light, levitating close above the ground. Its light wasn't blinding, however, it seemed to not light up the environment at all.

"Hi," the ball 'said'.

"Who are you?" I asked defensively.

"There is no 'me' there is also no 'we'. Remember, there is only you, and it makes me and you, I. I, the grass eevee evolved in the dark, I, the leafeon of the night."

It was me who I found in the bush where I evolved. The part I had to learn about, a part that was making me different from the others. No one knew about it. I once thought that Cera or Serge notice that something was off, that dark-type moves work differently on me, that psychic doesn't affect me fully. It was a shame to say to them. Who would like to change nice and normal leafeon into something new, especially now as everyone get used to me? So I stayed as I thought leafeon should stay, nice to the others, living during a day, not hunting, stimulating plants. I was creating standards for leafeons, not even knowing if I was right or wrong, not that there was anyone who would say judge me. The leader was annoying, his extra sense of finding potential opponents quickly marked me and having friends like Cera and Serge only made him even more convinced. It was hard to agree that he was right about it, I wasn't so weak, but still far from anything that could be called strong. But the longer this journey was, the more was changing.

* * *

I was forced to wake up from the cold. When I opened my eyes, I saw Sonya few steps away, she looked like a ghost, almost invisible in the dark.

"What? Did I sleep over a whole day?" I wondered aloud. Sonya suddenly jumped from her seat and aggressively turned to my direction, her horn leaving a glowing path as she moved, her eyes seemed to glow red in the dark.

"Calm down, I only ask," I said in my defence. "You could wake me up if I did, you didn't need to wait so long."

"No, it's not that. I just had... some dark-type thoughts. Doesn't matter," she mumbled, sitting down again and visibly relaxing.

"So, what about the day?" I asked, didn't believe I missed so important for me part of the day.

"It didn't get up."

"What?"

"Just what you heard, we don't wait for the sun, it won't come. The city is enveloped in darkness, there were sunny days here, once, but it seems it is the past now. Here we are, in the eye of the night, we would better move fast and be invisible, you wouldn't like to make this eye to look at you.," the absol said, but she didn't stand up. I guessed that she was playing with me, trying to scare me, but her facial expression was very serious, so I kept my serious too.

"So? Should we hide or something?" I questioned.

"Oh, we are not in the city yet, we still have to go around this beacon. I think that if we would go typically to every traveller road by the main street and glass market, nothing bad would happen. Honestly, I doubt that anything would happen whatever we would go, but let's not try our luck and just go how we should. By the way, you shouldn't be afraid of the night having me next to you! I am quite high in the dark-type pyramid, especially in this region," Sonya praised.

"What about other types?" I asked.

"Well, if we meet bug-type, we are both fucked, but that rather won't happen, the city is empty," she answered, standing up and starting to walk away.

"Don't even mention that type! I haven't even seen it alive and I already have shivers. The thought that this kind of creature can see me only as a form of food make me scared to the bone!" I said, standing up too and following her.

"Well, I can consider you as a form of food too..."

"But for you, it just one of the possibilities while for bug-types it's the only right perception of my kind, being food. I am not sure if any other type has a similar relation, I am weak to fire too, but that's because I am easy to burn, not because I am part of someone diet."

"Well, I think that if you would search hard enough you would find similar relations, but indeed. You are on a losing position, not only easy to beat, but also enjoyable for lunch. It would be like getting a meal for every ghost type I met, it would be living in the heaven!"

"Great, and when I meet someone afraid of me just because of my type?" I asked, though I didn't expect an answer.

"I once told you, eeveelutions can't be scary. The only case anyone would be afraid of eeveelution, would be when it had to leave its eggs or pups unprotected. You don't have long teeth, powerful jaw, horn able to cut tree or rock, even your claws are rather to help you grasp the ground than be useful in a fight. I can understand why you try to be cunning and avoid honest fights, you don't have much chance in them, well, unless you are strong in number."

The ground we entered was different from anything I saw earlier, I stopped to take a closer look. It was very black, but not as hard as stone, very similar to the one I stood in the tunnel, but here were long white strips at the edges and middle of the weird 'stone' formation.

"That's asphalt," said Sonya, seeing that I stopped following her. "We are on the street, highway A2, one hundred meters before the gates. If you ever find anything like that in the future, do not enter it. If you are forced to go to the second side than check two times if it safe. It's also a bad idea to walk on it during summer as it can get very hot."

"Uhm, okay. How you know that?"

"There is a sign over there," Sonya said pointing at the opposite side of the asphalt."So, how your pack manage to overcome said disadvantages? Is it some secret only eons know?"

I returned to the pace. "It's not that we all live in one huge pack you know, there is a lot of small groups, families living separately. Even some of those born in the pack rotate to live in a smaller group. The terrain where my pack live was very comfortable for eeveelutions so there were so many groups that they created the pack as it was easier to live as one group than many. But honestly, it's not that complete as it looks, we have a lot of regions, conflicts happen too."

"And what you are doing then? Fighting? It must be amusing view when two eeveelution needs to chase and at the same time keep running from each other," smirked Sonya.

"You could be surprised how violent things can go when someone tries to take the leader position. Also, we know a bit more than running away, you should see Sogot, he would break all your images of the eeveelution," I said, though Sogot shouldn't be an example of eeveelution, he was one and only of his kind.

"Well, we are officially here," said Sonya stopping between two big cubic structures I assumed were earlier mentioned 'gates'. "Say hello the City of Broken Ideals. The place where the so-called 'The End of the World' had already happen."

* * *

To that moment I couldn't understand what Sonya meant by word 'ruin', but this view explained everything. From the cracked ground were long sharp metallic girders, that in some case were even creating a structure of what Sonya described as skyscrapers. Most of the ground covered was in chiefly destroyed asphalt, and I couldn't even see the smallest plant. The ground was completely burned and every step was creating the small cloud of ash. My paws were in pain stomping on such hard ground full of cracks and I felt tired of avoiding many sharp objects hidden in the ash. It was reminding me of avoiding shit burrowed under the snow during the snow season. There were also bigger object on our path, 'cars' and 'buses' or how Sonya said, "what remained of cars and buses."

Cars weren't much problem, there were quite low so it was easy to jump, just their metallic construction was slippy, buses, however, were too high for me to jump. Absol hadn't any problem, she was jumping high without much effort, she needed to look for easier way for me from above.

I felt bad, not only my paws were hurting, it wasn't the first time when my paws were in pain, eeveelutions never were good in travelling long distances, especially when it was an absol who chose the speed of walking. I felt generally bad, the ground was cold and there was no sun to warm me up, I missed sun to regain some of the energy. The disadvantage of depending on solar power was it that when there was no sun, my stomach was waking up and singing me its melody. Besides cold, the ash and dust that was flying around was sticking to my leaves blocking my air filtration. I started coughing having this awful taste of burning on my tongue.

No wonder nothing was growing here, we just passed few streets and I was already tired and completely dry.

I stopped following Sonya for a moment to cough heavily and spat on the ground though it was harder and harder to gather enough saliva to spat, it was becoming more consistent and stuck to my throat.

"Is everything alright?" asked Sonya, from the roof of another bus, she was above the ground avoiding the dust for the most of the time.

"ye..." trying to speak caused another tickling sensation and another wave of coughing. "How far?"

"Well, we need to go few more streets until we reach the park. After the park is the hardest part because we need to go through a fallen skyscraper and it's just like a labyrinth. Then another few street and..."

"You could just say it's far," I said, using an opportunity that my throat was clear for the moment. "Is there any other way? Somewhere within all this dust? It's literally slowly killing me."

Sonya didn't answer immediately, thinking. Her eyes widened slightly, and I guessed that there was another way, just for some reason Sonya still was battling her thoughts.

"There is," I said.

"Yes, there is," nodded Sonya, looking ahead of the street. "You are sure you can't stand the dust for few more hours?"

"No, I am not. I mean yes, I mean I can't stand it even now, is there anything wrong with this another way?" I asked.

"No, everything is fine," she agreed but added. "At least there is nothing confirmed that there is anything wrong."

"Great, so where're we going?"

"The other passage is through the Metro," said Sonya, taking a pause, reading my expression as I completely didn't know what 'metro' means.

"Ok," I nodded, Sonya one more time looked around the street before jumping on the ground next to me. She guided me off the street at the small clearing between building, where we stood before long steps down underground. Just before as was lying bare skeleton of a two-legged creature that looked as if was crawling toward the Metro entrance.

"OH! Thank you! We just changed the path and taa-daa! Some good fucking food!" I exclaimed happily and with one swift move, I cut the longest bone in half with my tail. "Oh, it's even better! Nobody stole the bone marrow! I hate it when someone eats marrow and leave the rest of the bone. Want some?"

"No, I am not hungry," answered Sonya blankly.

"Weird, I don't remember when you were last hunting ," I said, thinking that it needed to be at least two days ago. "But I won't be arguing, there is only one skeleton and even less of marrow so if you don't want it than I eat the only marrow. Just don't threaten me later than you are hungry and going to eat me."

"Sure."

* * *

"What you are looking at?" I asked as I finished eating, still being observed by Sonya. "Whatever it was, it doesn't need these bones any longer."

"It's not often to see grass-type eating meat," answered Sonya.

I walked down the steps, inside the metro was even darker than outside, the smell was moist and mouldy, but passable, much better than all this choking ash. Here the ground beside general destruction was mostly clear. I shook the dust clearing my leaves, it felt like new fresh breath. I missed only some water, but besides it, I was much better now.

"It's dark there," absol commented, the entrance still sitting at the top of the stairs. I turned to her.

"You are bad at expressing your joy Sonya, now don't let me ask you and guide me through this 'metro'," I commented. Even if it completely didn't sound like the joy I through that a dark-type would like to go in some dark place beside already being in the darkness of night.

"I mean, it very, very very dark there, too dark to see anything."

"What? You won't tell me that you don't see in the dark, I know that dark-types are great at lying, but don't you think that this one is a bit too obvious?"

"Look, do you know how the eye works?" she asked, me surprising me with the sudden change of topic.

"Well, I look at the thing and see the thing, but why you bring it up now?"

"Pfff, believe me, it's not that simple. That what you see are hundreds of rays of light reflected by something. Difference between your and my eyes is that my eyes are more sensitive to the light, but if there is no light then even best eyes won't help!" Sonya explained.

"Which dark-type is best at seeing in the dark?" I asked with curiosity.

"I am the pure-blooded type, if I can't see then no one can!"

"So, are you scared of the darkness where you can't see?"

Sonya slightly tensed and shook her head.

"No! This day would be absolutely crazy than, the sun that can't find its way on the sky, absol scared of darkness and mystical white leafeon talking to me! No, I am not scared of the dark, leafeon."

"How you... how you know about Destiny?"

Before any answer could come, I felt something wrap around my back leg. I didn't manage to turn before a great force pulled me, for a moment I could see Sonya's face, her widened eyes and half-open muzzle. Before entrails of metro ate me, I could see the fear on her face, the real fear and I knew I should be scared.


	13. Ch13 Fearless Path

Chapter 13 Fearless Path

I suddenly snapped out of the dreamless sleep. I opened my eyes, but I saw as much as I would keeping them closed. My head and back leg were aching with pain, I needed to hit something.

"Where I am?" I mumbled to myself. It was dark, cold and wet. I tried to move, but something below me cracked loudly, making me freeze.

Slowly and carefully I tried to check what was below me, but complete darkness limited me.

It was something cold and smooth feeling, it was also easy to break as every my move caused cracks. I felt that these things weren't only below me but all around me, I was buried.

Caring less and less about the sound I made, I kept more and more confidently, struggling forward, slowly growing desperate because of the complete darkness, endless cracking and mangling items from every direction. I was growing tired of the weight pushed on my back and I wanted to scream, but I didn't. I was too scared to scream, who would answer me?

Staying still I thought that I start to see something. No, I really was seeing! First very weakly, like in the middle of the night, but slowly I was noticing new details until I fully saw...

"Even more food?" I questioned myself, as a weak white glow allowed me to recognise white bare bones everywhere around, below and above me. Skulls, limbs, even still complete chests of various creatures, there was a lot of these two-legged skeletons I saw at the entrance, but also a huge amount of quadruped looking frames almost in every size. Some of them were big enough to make a den in them. I hadn't that many bones above me as I thought, now as I could see I quickly managed to crawl at the top of the bone made ocean. Here I had a chance to check on myself, looking back at I saw that my seeing wasn't thanks to my eyes, but the weak glow of my leaves, or my leaf on the forehead as the tail was completely broken. I didn't feel pain only because of my main stem and all my filaments that were nerved were still there, however, there was no blade of the leaf. In weak light, my tail looked like some creepy scolopendromorphic looking creature attached to my spine.

"It will take forever to make it back to normal," I grumbled, seeing the scale of damage. "It also looks that I will return to my only meat diet for a while."

Still good that I had an alternative, as opposed to all these grass-types that are not used to eat meat. Damage like this could be a deadly wound. Death by hunger, what a terrible way to die, as your body slowly stops to work eating itself from inside. A shiver shook my body when I tried to imagine it.

 _But wait... if they don't eat meat then they don't have juices able to digest them from inside._

My luck that my forehead leaf, even being out of form, was still functional weakly lighting up my surroundings, I was a bit surprised as I didn't know it can glow by itself, so far I thought it only can reflect light from the other sources.

I looked around. I was probably still in the cave Sonya called The Metro, it was for sure the biggest cave I had ever seen, Sogot for sure would be jealous seeing how much bigger it was from his leader's den. But as Sonya said, that city is a concentration of humans, and there were thousands of them, then all of them had to sleep somewhere, so it was quite understandable that they build such huge den like this Metro. Maybe where I was now is what's left of their pantry? That could be the reason why there were so many bones here.

I started walking in a random direction, stumbling on bones, I had to find Sonya and avoid whatever made me be here. The Metro's large cave was ending here, turning into many separate long tunnels, on each made of small square shaped blocks walls were glowing slightly in yellow unknown hieroglyphs and markings.

 _Maybe humans believed in secret marks that had to protect this "Metro"._

"Why would you believe in such bullshit," I questioned myself, keeping my voice low. However, I couldn't understand why a species able to build a den in this size would believe in anything different then themselves. Firstly, I wanted to choose the way with the simplest mark that looked just like a straight line, but finally, I chose the tunnel with a symbol of two connected with each other hemispheres.

Who knows, maybe these marks were really working and choosing the simplest one I could meet the "thing" I wanted to avoid? The thought hadn't any fact that could make it a reasonable choice, however, wondering about it made me feel better as I was "thinking".

I was thinking and choosing the "right" way, not because it was truly the right way, but because it wasn't randomly chosen way that could fill me with doubts. Now when I was on fully planned and over thought tunnel I felt safer and more confident.

I was walking close to the wall by the tight path, on my left, the floor was rapidly lowering giving space to the two long in both directions metal lines. Lifting my eyes up I noticed strange thing pending from the wall. This thing was thicker than my middle getting slimed to the end, but actually ending with one massive ball. Whole 'arm' was slowly undulating. At the closer look, the ball reminded me of the closed eye, it had very poor hairs, almost not existing lash and deep violet skin colour, it stunk in a disgusting odour of slime and rotten flesh. I felt as if I had to vomit but my stomach was strongly holding his precious content inside.

Growing nervous, I slowly turned in attempt to go back, but as I looked at the way back I saw more of these things hangings from the walls, I just missed or took them as a part of the environment coming here in the first place. Trying to be silent as ever before I braced myself to go forward, I carefully crawled under the undulating eye-tentacle. It didn't notice me, as its eye was still closed.

However, it wasn't the end of my worries, now I could see that the strange creatures weren't exiting some hole in the wall but was actually growing on the wall, it was growing on all the wall. The gray material The Metro was built on was disappearing under some deep violet pulsating flesh covered by sporadic stuffy hairs. I could see blue veins the width of my paw, randomly spread were smaller or larger disgusting hearts pumping the blood and the further in the tunnel I went the more space was cover in the living tissues.

 _What was it? Did it have a name?_

I tried my best to avoid touching or stepping on it but when almost whole ground was covered in flesh and I accidentally stepped for a few times on 'this' I cared less, besides still being disgusted. It seemed that whatever it was it hadn't touched, at this point, it reminded me of a plant.

A plant made of hearts, veins, fat and eyes on long movable limbs. Why couldn't this tunnel be filled with white blooming daisies or generally anything else?!

But instead of getting better, my way became an obstacle course when more and more tentacles and eyes were hanging from the roof, I also thought that I saw few livers growing into all that pulsing flesh, but I didn't want to investigate it as I was afraid that I would really vomit this time. The distance I made wasn't long, but every step was like a nightmare when I had to touch cold moving covered with sweaty flesh, my paws probably already were stinking just like this living floor.

Suddenly a strong gust of the air hit my face, filling the air in a whizz and stomach-turning clapping of tentacles on the overgrown walls. I waited until the wind stopped and the hanging limbs calmed down before continuing to walk. However, it was harder to lift my legs now, I needed to use more strength to unstick my paws from the 'ground'. The fur on my back stood up.

This fucking Metro tried to grow on me too! I couldn't stay in one place for too long.

I spotted a small part where the ground was still real ground and stood there as I didn't dare to sit. I took a deep breath, that completely didn't make me feel better. I really wished I could be anywhere else but here. Why did it have to be me who fell into the river? Why did I put my trust into a random dark-type I met? It's her who made me walk into this nightmare... twice. She didn't give me any reason to trust her, yet I did, and here I was. I should leave her when the occasion first strikes. When I just see more familiar environment I will be gone. She chased disasters and I was stupidly following.

I was angry at her. Was it really so hard to say that something so ugly lives here? Or at least stay somewhere close? Just like this dark forest, I was in danger and my furry ball of blades was out of touch, stuck in another tree or whatever she put her horn in this time.

With angst, I kicked the living mass before me and almost immediately lowered to the ground when movement of the air warned me about an incoming hit. Not even a moment later one of the tentacles swung, going through space where my head was a moment ago.

 _Damn, this shit is fast! If it would hit me not much would be left._

The limb swung few more times before calming down again and I promised myself to not kick the living ground again.

"I think that I have a name for you, I'll call you Metro," I mumbled, and Metro took its name in silence as I continued to walk, carefully observing the walls and roof, and also my own paws, I couldn't leave anything to surprise me now, at the same time trying to avoid looking on more disgusting growths than I had already seen.

The tunnel was turning slightly to the left and down and seemed to be endless, sometimes I thought that I'd seen the same hieroglyphs I saw at the entrance, however, only visible was a weak yellow glow, barely penetrating the thin layer of flesh. In the middle of the tunnel, I found something that was similar to the bus, but longer and higher with an opening on its front between two weekly glowing red lights. I jumped in.

Inside was completely clear, there was no growing tissues or dust, the whole entrance was weekly lit up by small yellow lights hidden in the roof. I already knew that 'L' shaped things were seats or 'hairs', as I asked Sonya what busses had inside, however by curiosity I jumped on the one and sat, I wanted to try if it was really so good to sit at.

They were not, it wasn't comfortable at all, but before I could stand up I felt something start to change. The chair darkened and changed its shape adjusting to my shape and size creating small squeezable pads under my paws and butt, also creating a hole I could put my tail through so it was freely hanging'.

The sensation was similar to what I felt when Sonya was powering up her horn in dark energy, it was a wave of bad emotions that desperately look for a way to be released. I didn't like it more than I didn't like apple tree, they were always so selfish and twisted. On another seat on my side was lying a small pile of white material covered in dark marks. Was it another relic of humans? No matter if it was or not, for now, it became my chewing toy as I enjoyed the cleanliness of this place. Though it wasn't a real stick it was working well as its replacement, resistant enough to be satisfying and easy enough to not damage teeth. When the floor below me was full of small white curls I jumped down from the seat which returned to its 'L' shape. I knew that I couldn't stay in one place too long. Every next room I entered in this long bus was the same, lines of seats and some space in the middle, only the eighth was different. It was the last room, much smaller than any before, it had only one seat that was standing before the board of black metallic sticks and glowing quadrats. The room was ended by a transparent material, currently with a wide hole in it but I could imagine how it should look. All quadrants were blinking in the same symbol of something that looked like a dark eye, more exactly like moon-like pupil placed in the top of the dark conjunctiva.

"Well, Sonya probably would know what it means," I murmured to myself, jumping through the broken hole. The metro wasn't as dark here, two powerful white lights of the underground bus were lighting up the large opening. The living tissue seemed to dislike the light because as far the light reached the ground and far roof walls were clear, however, the new opening was too large to be fully bathed in light, most of it was still covered in darkness. I reached the edge of the light and stood before the large hole in the ground. The living flesh was growing here much larger than anywhere before, some hearts on the wall were larger than me and their beating sounded loud.

My eyes went further to the roof and then I saw what was hidden in shadow. It was full of bodies, random pokemon were hanging from the roof attached to long fleshy limb connected to their head. Horrified by the number of hanging bodies, I spotted also single eeveelution, female eeveelution. Her left cheek was painted with three blue stripes. Next to her, I saw familiar absol in her winged form. One of her wings was broken and set at a terrifying angle, but I hadn't any doubts it was Sonya. However the next hanging limb was empty, there was no pokemon there, just aimlessly hanging tentacle. Seeing all of it I impulsively reached to the back of my head in the same spot the other pokemon were attached to the roof I found there almost fully healed wound. I looked again at the hanging limb.

"No way I was..." before I could finish, I heard the loud grumble from the wide hole in the ground before me and saw how large body slowly was filling the space before me. It had deep red skin covered in deep swirling wrinkles and one huge eye which yellow pupil was glowing like a burning flame. I flipped on my back stumbling against something but powerful pulse of living tissue pushed me on the paws again.

"Turn your fear into a souvenir, I spared you already," boomed a resounding voice of many mouths placed in random places of the metro. "Glad that you finally woke up and with your own mind."

"Ipfrty," I whined unable to tame the fear that controlled my body. It felt as if the yellow eye was penetrating me, burning my soul and invading my mind. The creature backed away giving me some space, so its eye wasn't filling whole my vision.

"Stop your fear, now," ordered the monster, talking from every direction making me stop whining and standing almost at attention. "Introduce yourself!"

"'Am Za-Zar," I managed to push the words through my throat.

"Zar what?" demanded the monster from beyond.

"J-just Zar," I whined again.

"Shame on you Zar, shame on whole your line, your every ancestor will look at you now with disappointment. How can the descendant of the Dark Litter go without a title!? How hasn't a descendant of the Dark Litter managed to work out a title for you?" boomed the creature and its multiple tentacles hit the walls, making me shrink even more.

"Stand up straight!" roared the multiple mouths and I jumped to stand, unconfident, but straight.

"If Azor the Duskeye would see what has became of his son , he would teach you some manners!"

"I am sorry," I mumbled.

"Don't be sorry or I will kill you, trash!" it roared, and one of the tentacles eight times thicker than whole my body hit the ground just next to me, making me fall to the side as the ground shook. I was quickly back on my paws as the living ground pulsed and pushed me up to a standing position.

"You weakling!"

"How do you know my ancestor!?" I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying over shout this creature. 'How you know my grandfather?"

There was a moment of silence in the chamber before the monster spoke again.

"Grandfather? So that's how much time had passed since the last visit? I felt it, but wasn't sure. Where is Azor the Duskeye? Did he send you?" asked the piercing voice, but a little calmer than before.

"You... you just listened to me?" I asked, surprised.

"Yes, as I am obedience to the Dark Litter. Even so pitiful as you," answered the monster.

"The Dark Litter? What do you mean?" I asked again, still very unsure, but too afraid to stop.

"That's the line of Azor the Duskeye."

"But how did you know I am in his line?"

"I couldn't consume you like the others, your appearance in my mind was burning me from inside. That means you are a being equal to me, that we share our creator," spoke the yellow eye, I noticed it wasn't blinking at all. I moved my eyes on hanging creatures again.

"Are you... eating them?" I asked timidly.

"Consuming isn't the same word as eating."

"So... are they alive?" I asked again.

"Alive is still not the same word as consumed," it answered again, and some single mouth from the left wall wondered. "The longer I look on you the more I am sure you don't have any special ability, besides appearance."

"What you are doing with them?" I kept my focus on Sonya.

"I am consuming them, I am a creation of what was never supposed to create, my body grows deep underground, seeking fuel, and the fuel is dark energy. All of my collection you see here posses dark energy, I am slowly taking it away from them and growing larger, until one day I will become the doom of this world and myself."

"So, why I am not hanging with them? Am I... untasty because of my type?" I was still afraid of my life, but I needed more information to get Sonya and myself out of here, and maybe this flareon, we have eon-bonds after all.

"I can't touch you, Azor the Duskeye would kill me, he is the first one when I am only the second. I don't believe he died. He could walk among legendaries and wouldn't be weaker than them. He was born from genes of creature from this world and the Distorted World, starting the new breed, called the Dark Litter, you."

"Another world? Someone, who created even if he shouldn't? You mean...?" I tried to push the eye to another answer.

"She! Your and my master, The Queen of Lies and falsities, Giratina!"

 _Who? Is it a name or another mystery?_

"So, in this... hierarchy, I am above you?" I questioned, walking around a bit so the ground wouldn't grow on my paws.

"Only because of being a direct descendant of Azor, I wait for a day it changes, then I smash you against the ground and supply myself with your organs, one day." A shiver went through my spine as the threat was almost screamed at me, this thing hated me, but something was making it tolerate me.

"If I would order you, would you obey?" I asked.

"Depends," it only said, and kept penetrating me with its eye.

"On?

"The reason and your ability to explain it."

"Then, give me the absol back," I ordered, imitating Sogot while he was ordering in the pack, I hoped it would be helpful.

"Why should I do it? Absols are rare these times, especially with the ability to mega evolve on its own and even rarest that enjoy it. She can power me up for years and she still would have a lot to offer me later. I never miss few extra limbs, I would just need to..." I saw how one of the tentacle wrap around Sonya's wing and after a moment there was a deaf sound of a broken bone. "...damage her from time to time so she stays like that."

"I need her as a guide," I argued.

"I can transport all her knowledge to your mind and you can guide on your own," Metro said, and I saw how he slowly wrapped around another of absol's limbs. "You don't need her at all, leave her here, it will work for you. You will regret saving her." Saying that, Metro moved from Sonya's back limbs to her face.

"Wait, wait! You can't do it!"

"Why not?" Metro asked, being already ready to scarify Sonya.

"Because I need her to..."-to what? I don't need her at all if I can reach my pack without her, however, it's was a fate no one should have-"...to reproduce," I shoot completely out of ideas. "If you damage her now I won't be possible to get over it later and Azor will be angry that you discontinued the Dark Litter!"

"I am connected with her mind, she doesn't find you this way," Metro said, but quickly backed away from Sonya.

"Not that I ever cared about it, she is strong and that's what matters, give her to me, now," I said, trying my best to make it sound like an order, but my legs were slightly shaking.

 _Please, it needs to work!_

"Greedy, aren't you?" Metro laughed, though its laugh sounded like falling rocks, while it was coming out of many mouths at the same time. "You are so similar to Azor."

An absol suddenly fell to the ground and the fleshy ground amortised the fall, the giant body with the yellow eye started to disappear in the large hole it came from in the first place.

"One day, you will pay me for her life Zar without a title, one day I eat your world," said mouths in the walls, before turning silent.

I walked to the lying pokemon, however, Sonya in her current form was far beyond the weight I could lift.

Without thinking much, I walked closer to Sonya, and with all strength I had, I slapped her in the face.

"Fuck!" I yelled, as her skull was surprisingly hard. I would do it with my tail if it wasn't so devastated. I finally could release my all my emotions.

Sonya woke up, turning on her belly and coughed with some blood from her mouth. Using the second paw I forced her to look up at me.

"You had to protect me and instead you are guiding me in the most dangerous places in the world! If you want my death say it now to my eyes!" I yelled at her, not allowing her to look away, her eyes were blurry and not focused, she was confused and out of senses.

"Zar?" she asked, dully blinking twice.

"And who did you expect? You don't have anyone besides me who would even consider saving you!" I barked, finally backing away from her.

"Sorry," she whimpered.

"Oh, you should be sorry, you almost killed me twice! Oh no, wait not twice, I could have died four times since I met you!" I shouted, pacing around and smacked a random tentacle hanging from the wall. The white part of my leaf blinked in the blinding light as my anger was rising.

"I didn't know it was living here, I just heard rumours," Sonya tried to explain away herself.

"Then why you didn't say anything!? You had my trust, Sonya, I didn't want to judge depending on the opinion of others, but you are just like Liss said your species is. Big-headed idiots that are ready to risk everything just for their pride!" I spat, kicking another outgrowth in the wall, it was probably a lung.

"You can't blame me for not believing in something like that! You see how this place looks like, no one would believe this," argued Sonya.

"Your believing doesn't matter or bother this creature existence. Everything that stays as your thought doesn't have any meaning, only things you do mean something, and you guided me here saying it would be safe!" I said, stomping on a small beating heart growing in the ground, it exploded like a puffball, splashing crimson dots everywhere. I saw that Sonya tried to stand, but as she moved her wing, the pain made her stay in place.

"I was caught too," said Sonya, fueling my anger even more, my leaf again increased the light.

"Yes, and I needed to risk my life to save you! I had to argue with the Metro for your life and only... I won't say anything more," I suddenly stopped, noticing an ear as one of the growths in the wall organ. Walls had ears, I couldn't say that I didn't know anything about Dark Litter, that Azor was really dead or that I wasn't Azor's decendent, I wasn't from his main line, rather from his bastard's line. I wasn't his direct descendant, my mother was related to him, but it was the espeon Vilastraaday and his son who were the main line, as Metro called it, the Dark Litter. "Get up."

Sonya stood up, visibly grimacing from the pain the broken wing caused. I paced to support her but she shook her head.

"I am fine."

"Where are we?" I asked, as I really didn't know and only could guess.

"It's station fifty-seven 'The Market', somewhere there should be stairs up," she said, nodding in a direction of the dark corner. As I walked closer I saw a lot of small steps making their way up. Sonya walked to the stairs and then slashed with her horn, energised by dark energy, something next to the stairs. Suddenly the stairs started to move on their own going up caring us on them.

"What did you do?" I asked the absol.

"Everything here runs on dark-type energy, I can make it work for a short moment giving it some of my energy," answered the dark-type.

 _Finally, something useful!_

The stairs took us out of the darkness of the metro on the street again, but for now, we stayed in the small building where the entrance to the undergrounds was located. The blows of fresh and cold night breeze filled my lungs as I breathed in deeply and slowly released the air. I didn't even realise how much it stunk inside of the metro and how clear the air felt now, even with this dust. Having less of my leaves made it easier to stand such pollution.

"Come here, I need to help your wing," I said, waving to absol to come closer. She hesitated for a moment, walked to me, turning with her back to me and lying down. Her wind was distorted in an unnatural way, it probably hurt with every move.

"Do you want anaesthesia?" I asked before I did anything and warned. "It can cause sudden sleep, hallucinating or temporarily lose of memory. Once it also caused sudden sexuality desire but it was just one time."

"Just get over with it," spat Sonya, flattening her wings, covering more space than I thought she could.

 _Do not admire her now Zar, remember, you are angry at her!_

Some part of me wanted to agree that Sonya was just cute and tempting when she was allowing me so close to her, but this part was weak. What I saw now was a liar who tried to deceive me again. Yeah, I was obvious to the real wilderness outside of the pack, but inside these tunnels, something snapped inside of me and perfect absol's ass won't be enough to cloud my mind anymore. I approached her wing, and without warning, pushed her bones into the place they should be. Sonya hissed through gritted teeth, feeling the pain. Now the wing looked as it should, it just needed some support to stay this way. From my extended paw growth thin but strong green stem, that slowly wrapped the wing in the design it should be. Funny that something like that I would consider as a miracle before falling into the river. Now it felt almost natural.

When the stem was safely securing the absols wing, I backed off, leaving the rest of job to the natural self-regeneration of the mega-evolved absol.

It's unfair that I couldn't have a chance to possess more power than I already have. I wondered about the temporary burst of absols abilities coming from the new form they could gain.

We, the eeveelutions were, from the start, at a losing position, being born as a normal-type we wasted a lot of time on choosing our way to evolve, later not having time to master the type we chose. The only hope was in a numbers, or we were in hundreds or we were crushed. Absols just like every other species was working on its type since birth, while we were starting a few years later when we finally gained our form. It was an advantage, everyone could become what they wanted to, the disadvantage was that we hadn't enough time to compete with other species in mastering it. What chances had an umbreon living maximum thirteen years as a dark type with absol whose life could be counted in more than fifty and still be young?

I added some helpful healing fumes to Sonya's wound so it would heal quicker then it would do naturally. I didn't want her to suffer, she wasn't responsible for the differences in our species, to suffer from my wonders. She was just an absol who lived the life it was given, just like me.

She was a bigger and stronger quadruped creature that depended on individual strength, I was small and weak pokemon depending on friends. Her strengths were muscles and blades, mine sexual desire and quick reproduction allowing my species to survive and to fill every type with weak, but always, eeveelutions that would support each other. There was just one, not fitting element. Sonya said she was banished from her pack while everything was making me think that absols were loners, depending only on their own strength instead of depending on the friends. Would Sonya lie to me? She was a dark type, she could do it, she could do it easier than convincing small eevee that the sky is red. I made myself look like an idiot before her, believing everything she said, but how much of it all she said what truth?

 _Who was I following?_

Looking at the wing, I decided to make a few more corrections of Sonya's wing while she screamed some more in pain, before I assumed I reached perfection and the wing couldn't be set in a better position. I hardened the stem to not allow the wing to change position until it heals completely and once more brushed my paw through the soft white feathers of Sonya's wing.

"Don't stand up, you'll have to lay like this until tomorrow. Then your wing should be strong enough, until then you risk of breaking it again," I said, backing off and sitting down in front of her. It was only my guess that she'd heal by tomorrow, I didn't know absols' capability of healing.

"Zar, if you hit me ever again. I will make you regret it," threatened Sonya.

"You probably won't sleep tonight because of the pain. I will put you asleep so you won't move, the morning can be hard, but you will thank me later."

"No, do not try anything! I want too..." Sonya slowly collapsed into the sleep as I started to put her asleep, before I even worn her about it. She was visibly fighting to stay awake, but she was too tired and gave up. I collapsed on the ground too and stretched. I checked my tail, first green parts already appeared but it still was useless.

I curled up to sleep while I had a chance, but emotions that still didn't fade away kept me awake. I rolled to my other side looking for a more comfortable position. Being on another side I saw Destiny smiling at me, I rolled again returning to the previous position, but it was such uncomfortable that after a moment I returned to the side I could see Destiny.

"Bored aren't you?" I asked.

Destiny answered me with a shrug.

"You won't go away?"

I got another silent answer, shook of the head as 'no'. I sighted pushing myself up to sit.

"So, what is so important?

"I always wonder why you keep asking me. You know what doesn't let you sleep."

"Trust," I said blankly looking at sleeping, Sonya. "Dark-types are great at lying, I always knew it but how it can help me? From everything that came from her mouth, how much of it is a lie? I was believing in everything because I wanted to trust her, but now, I am not the same scared leafeon who almost died in the river. The small world I lived grew, I saw things no one had ever seen and I would be the first eon that befriended an absol. Would, because I can't call her friend. I think it would be safer to think that I don't know anything about her than trying to guess what was true and was a lie."

"Why do you think she tells you lies at all?" asked Destiny.

"Her past isn't clear, Sonya said she was kicked from the pack but absols don't form packs. If they would there be plenty of absols as being in the pack allow to breed easily while it's hard to even to see one. Liss never mentioned that she saw more than two absols at once. It was when they wanted to take glaceons home, if there would be a pack, there would be more than two," I said lying down, I saw how Destiny vanishes in the air living me alone.

Maybe Sonya is here to take my home? We are wild after all and the more intelligent we are, the more dangerous we are.


	14. CH14 'Pitiful Reflection'

In the city bathed by night, there were no chances for the morning, the beginning of the day started Sonya's awakenings, in an accompaniment of moans and sights that were usual things after being put asleep by the leafeon. Her mind was in deep confusion, slowly starting to work reminding itself where she was, who she was, what she was.

I woke up much earlier and already had time to check on her wing, without her awareness I was watched how Sonya slowly came to senses and how she rose. Before standing up, she looked around, reminding herself of the place where she fell asleep, then, trying to stand up, she clumsy fallen to the ground wrongly balancing herself on her paws. There was a short, almost unnoticeable surprise on her face, then she stood up. I closed my eyes before she looked at me, but feeling her view on me, I opened them again pretending to be woken up by the noise she made, besides she was in complete silence.

Without a word, I walked outside of the room to the grey ruins of the city to wait for the absol there. It wasn't a street stuffed with vehicles anymore, but long and broad openings covered in something that looked like perfectly clear and frozen water.

It wasn't long as Sonya joined me outside.

"That's what once was market, it wasn't called the centre of the city, but it was the most crowded place here. There..." Sonya pointed out one of the opening corners"...was a place which produced aromas so great that even you sun-eaters would drool, it was run by the outsider, it was the only place that offered the 'different' and the best meat in the city, it was the main thing that was making this market more popular than a real centre. The left corner was built with a very tall skyscraper, which walls were made of glass, glass is hard transparent material that, if broke, became sharp. The city was destroyed in a powerful storm that came out of nothing, the glass from the building, carried by the wind, became a weapon that killed most of the civilians, the rest were killed by dark thunder. Currently, there is not even a trace of this skyscraper now, only the glass that covered the ground of the old market. Some time ago, someone melted the sharp pieces of glass into the large mirror which we can see know."

"How long ago?" I asked, looking at the thing that I thought was frozen water.

"For you, it's like very long ago, you weren't born yet, your parents could be young or still in eggs. It was a time of livings legends, everyone was talking that the world is about to end, but it still exists, the world is too big to just end," wandered Sonya, looking around with dreamy eyes.

"This place reminds me of the 'Middle' in our pack, always crowded with eeveelutions, but the 'Middle' doesn't have the end," I said.

"Your 'Middle' is nothing compared to this place, if this could end then your 'Middle' can too," said confidently Sonya.

"The Middle isn't a place, it's the moment when a lot of eons gather together and do their things, it can be often mistaken with the place, as it usually the same clearing as the place where so many eeveelutions meet together. But the 'Middle' never was a place, it was a moment when all eeveelutions were able to forget about the differences between them and live together. It's not possible to keep it forever, everyone's patience has its limits, but it's never the end of the 'Middle'," I explained.

"What can you know, to compare some primitive meeting with the city life? You are just a leafeon from the wild, you weren't even captured to at least lick the taste of civilisation," spat Sonya rapidly.

"And you are just an absol from the wilderness, who surprisingly knows everything about human civilisation," I barked back at her.

"I don't know everything about them! However, comparing some eeveelutions' meeting to the tragedy that happened sounds, at least, out of place," said Sonya, knitting her brows above her bloody red eyes.

"I didn't compare the tragedy to the 'Middle', I said that this market seems to be similar to the 'Middle"," I explained myself.

"You said that the 'Middle' doesn't have an end, that it can prevail whatever destroyed this city. It can not. Thinking that there is a place you are safe is dumb, you can die anywhere you are, faster than you think. The feeling of safety is very misleading. How many times do you fall asleep without being aware of your surroundings? Without even checking if a pokemon you didn't even hear about is coming for you? I've hunted eeveelution more than once, they always think that they are so safe during the sleep, that nothing can hurt them, that they always get the second chance, there is no second chance for pokemon that don't use their first chance and I always use it."

"How many?" I asked.

"What?"

"How many eeveelutions' did you kill?"

"Why does it interest you now?"

Because I wonder if I am not next on your list.

I didn't answer her, Sonya looked at me sceptically. Actually, only her eyes were telling me that we were not enemies, yet. There was still some friendly spark in them which I couldn't find in her voice or movement. It needed to finally come up, we were natural enemies, both quadrupeds, both hunting the same pray, we're made as rivals, but in this case, I was the pray. When was the first and second chance? Was she talking about me too, or did she made an exception for me? What if she first made these eeveelutions trust her before taking away their lives, why risk a fight if there is a chance to win without the fight?

But, if Sonya would want to kill me, she had a plenty of occasions, before I even started considering that possibility. Or there was something that prevented her from doing so? So I was returning to the same question, should I keep trusting her, or trust only myself?

I broke the eye contact we were keeping and looked into the dark sky. It still wasn't perfection, but I was somehow able to recognise this sky above, soon I would be home.

"Are we going?" I asked, standing up and walking in the glassy floor's direction, the absol huffed, but followed me. Maybe I shouldn't worry so much? Soon, I would be among friends and all worries would fade away. Why did I even try to understand different species? It wasn't possible, unless I was absol myself, just like Sonya couldn't understand my viewpoint because she wasn't eeveelution. I didn't know why hearing that Sonya killed eeveelutions awoken such negative feelings inside me and made them burn so bright, I was thinking about it earlier, and I thought that unless I see the murder by my own eyes, I could be fine. But now I knew that I couldn't be fine. If she was able to kill eeveelutions more than once, then what could my life mean to her? Was it as worthless as the life of a ratata or pidgey, nothing? Kill when hungry without a second thought?

We walked on the mirror-like ground, it was a bit slippy and cold, but I kept moving forward, I only missed the echo-like steps behind me. I looked back to see Sonya staring with wide-open eyes into the glass. I frowned, but walked to her and looked at what she was looking at. The ground wasn't anything it should be, instead of our reflection I saw humans, thousands of them walking in every possible direction between colourful materials, there was everything I could imagine and more there, pieces of meat, fruits of every kind, small alternative versions of many pokemon, one next to other in the lines. Some of them even looked very natural, but I still knew that they were made of some material and these are not real pokemon. Just below me, I saw the white leafeon, the same one I saw in the underground lake. However, under Sonya, I saw a female human, with long pure white hair hanging almost to the ground, she was slim and her skin was pale, she was smiling trying to reach her hand to the absols paw, but Sonya was keeping her paw above the ground, just watching at the human belove her, with a stare she never shown had before. It was only a moment, suddenly everything returned to be just the ruined grey city.

"Stop staring and move," spat Sonya, swiftly pushing me out from her way almost making me to fell. I looked once more at the glass, but nothing more appeared.

"Wait!" I shouted, chasing the winged absol. "What was that? Did you see it too?"

"It wasn't... it was... I... ahh, fuck it," Sonya said, only increasing the speed of her walk. I caught her healthy wing in my teeth and pulled, making her body swivel on the slippy ground, making her face me. She was angry, but I didn't care, I didn't care that she was in her overpowered appearance or that she wasn't now friendly Sonya but angry Agaar, I had to ask.

"Who was it? Was it a flash of the past?" I asked.

Absol only growled.

"Who was it? You recognise her and she wanted something from you! I saw it in your eyes!"

"Keep pushing and you will regret it!" she barked.

"It could be important, it can be connected to Metro and Azor!"

"Say one more word."

"Who..."

I couldn't finish, time seemed to slow when I saw how deep blue claws flew through the air. I avoided them by spinning in place, however, by complete mistake, I forgot about my tail that now being deprived of a leaf blade, was like a gathering of needles that easily cut the skin on Sonya's cheek. It wasn't a deep cut, my tail just brushed against her skin but it still was enough to leave red bloodless marks.

"Sonya?"

"Neither Sonya nor Agaar will help you know. You hurt me for the second time and I warned you!" said the absol in an evil tone and in one moment her blade and claws were covered in dark energy that was burning like dark flames. She charged immediately, going with her horn from below to slice me in two. I made a step back covering myself, my forehead leaf powered up with some sunlight energy I still had in myself. It didn't have a chance to block the absol, but at least her horn ricocheted from my weakly green glowing leaf.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that she tried to correct the attack her the claws, but I was faster and spun again trying to put some power in my tail. However, instead of glowing in green my tail formed the darkness in round shape, that in contact with absol's paw exploded creating a cloud of fumes and pushed the absol back. She stopped herself digging her claws into the glassy ground, but her face expression was showing the same surprised expression that was also showing mine.

"So you are now using dark-type moves? Funny, really funny," growled the absol, slowly closing the distance.

"Calm down, that wasn't what I really meant to do," I said, but the absol was deaf to my pleas, jumping in the sky, flapping her wings, breaking the stem I made to support her. When she was high, she sent a similar sphere of darkness down at me. I rolled to avoid it, but when I was getting up, only luck saved me from having my throat rip apart by the absol flying down at great speeds with extended claws. The wounded wing slightly made a change in her course, her claws making a deep cut only in my cheek and forehead.

I jumped back, trying to gain some safe ground, but she jumped right behind me as if gravity and her own weight didn't affect her movements, attacking again with her horn. In the act of desperation, I tried to block her with my tail, that once again seemed to absorb all the light around being covered in dark sphere that successfully blocked the absol's horn and even pushed her away.

She stopped for a moment looking at her horn, there was a single narrow cut on the deep-blue horn.

"My first battle mark. Finally someone strong enough to make one, I am so excited now," said the absol, closing in again with her head lowered.

"Come here, I will give you more if you want!" screamed someone from behind me. I looked back, and saw no one different but Destiny.

"Don't focus one me, focus on that absol, I am just cheering," said Destiny, seeing me looking at him.

Right!

Absol seemed to be completely obvious to Destiny's appearance, slowly closing in and cornering me. I tried to use the dark sphere once again by spinning around, but this time nothing happened besides that an absol giggled.

"Maybe you can use abilities you shouldn't, but you completely don't understand them. The power of the dark type isn't muscles or hours of training, but emotion, the darker my heart goes the stronger I am. You don't have a chance to have a more cursed heart then I!" said Sonya, and her walk slowly changed to a jog and then to a wild sprint. She was in favour, in the favour of dark-types when they were going crazy, I saw it already in newly evolved umbreons, but never was I the target.

The dark horn was growing in my eyes the closer it got. I quickly turned around and ran, ran as fast as I could, but it still wasn't enough, as my limbs were shorted than hers.

Paralysing pain shot through my body when the blade penetrated my flank and the absol lifted me and tossed on the ground. I screamed at the pain that filled my mind, but quickly turned to whine. I pushed myself up, barely standing. The blood was dripping from the wounds on my flank and face forming on the irregular glass small triangles, circles and splashes. I looked up.

The absol was waiting patiently, staying still, proudly, she knew that she already won, now it was to keep the form.

"You fought well leafeon, is there anything you want to me to say to your friends when I meet them? If I meet them?" the absol asked, slowly walking to me. I tried to back away, but I stumbled on my already numb back leg and fall on the ground causing myself even more pain.

When she was closer I weakly whispered under my breath,"Eeveelutions shit outside."

"Could you repeat that?" she asked, lowering her head to hear better, I was waiting only for that. Gathering all strength I had left I rapidly pushed myself up the ground and bit my teeth deep into her damaged wing and shook my head rapidly. There was a disgusting sound of the broken bone that already was weak.

Absol jumped surprised and desperately tried to free her wing from my grasp, but I kept biting it as strong as my jaws allowed me to do without breaking them too, trying my best to not let her go I also started to exhale my sleep powder.

Suddenly, the absol jumped hight in the sky and powerfully smashed against the ground with me. I blacked out for a moment, and when I returned to my senses I had only a few feathers still in my mouths.

I hadn't any sense in any part of my body below the chest, however, as I kept lying like that, final hit never came.

I opened my eyes to see the blue sunny sky with just a few small swirls of clouds on it. Looking left and right I made it sure that I still was in the middle of the ruined city lying on the melted glass. The reason of feeling numbness in my lowest part of the body was the huge absol paws pinning me to the ground, however, the absol itself wasn't conscious. I managed to put her to sleep just a moment before she managed to send me to the other world.

I sighed and pushed her paw off me. I stood again on the shaking paws and the wound on my back once again screamed in horrible pain. I got closer to Sonya's face, I wasn't in strength to kill her, I didn't even know if I would have the will to kill her now, but instead, I put all the powder I still had on my leaves on her nose and muzzle so she would be sleeping... I didn't even know how long, maybe forever.

With shaky legs, I started to go in the way I guess Sonya wanted to go before going crazy.

What got into her? She had reasons to dislike me, but not to kill me! There was no sense in that, why would she wait so long with it? The new rule, do not trust dark-types, no matter how depressed they would feel, no matter how good intention they would have. A dark-type is always a dark-type, their viewpoint on what's good or bad is incorrect and blurry, and their behaviours unpredictable. Now I got what I was asking for by trusting an absol.

The sun was helpful to my healing process, without it, the wound on my flank could be deadly. Now, it was slowly stopping bleeding and the cuts on my face already stopped bleeding, but still were painfully stinging.

Walking off the melted glass, my steps once again were creating fumes of dust, the dust was fastly attaching to the open wounds, soaking in blood and pus, creating coal-like protrusions.

I needed to clean my wounds, but there was only dust and ruins around, my tongue seemed to be dry just like environment around, so I just kept walking suffering from my dirty openings. However, the more of the red flesh was covered in the dust the less of pain I felt.

The ruins of the building were becoming rarer, time they completely disappeared as I left them behind. Now there was only flat, dark and bare stone that far away, was going up changing into a mountain pass that was around the whole city. In the far distance ahead, I saw a passage through the mountains, a single valley that looked like a missing tooth in the line of rocks. It was my destination.

The distance between me and the valley was bigger than it looked. The ruins I left behind became my horizon, why the valley was as far as it was I walked out of the city, now it was just slightly bigger.

*Sigh*

I heard padding on my left, turning my head I saw Destiny walking next to me. On his white appearance, I could see the same cuts and wounds I had, however, his, weren't covered in dust.

I returned to look forward, but unfortunately placed and tired paw gave up under my weight.

"Ah!" both I and Destiny yelped falling in a similar way, I quickly got up as I knew that if I allow myself to rest now I won't return to the walking and I needed water. I carefully placed the paw back on the ground and keep moving.

"Say honestly, did you know that it could happen?" I asked.

"No, I didn't think at all," answered Destiny. "I actually not sure if I should believe in destiny."

"Funny hearing it from you," I said.

"What kind of power is a destiny if it can be tricked and changed? I was happy that you actually cheated on me, because I was sure you won't leave these ruins or the metro at all. It's almost as if death was chasing you since you left the pack."

"Yeah, it may look like that, but so far every decision that put me in danger was made by this absol, mine were rather helping me survive. Maybe from the start, I should try to return to the pack completely on my own?" I wondered.

"And avoid everything you saw? Just think about it, if you wake up, back home after this long and dangerous journey, what would you regret? That event, which you would never agree to happen actually happen and turned into memories? That you came back home to what was abandoned? Or that your future now seems empty? Perhaps, with a smile on your face, would you recall those memories, enjoy what you left behind?" Destiny asked.

"Honestly, I don't know yet, but I guess I will soon," I answered. "I still need to get home."

"In this case, we won't see each other for a while," said the white leafeon sadly.

"Why? What do you mean? Would it mean that going back to my pack isn't my destiny? That I shouldn't go back?" I asked worried and little scared.

"I don't know, maybe. Maybe Destiny just needs to wait for a better moment to fulfil. It's not that everything needs to happen at the same moment. We don't live in the fairytale where one adventure sets whole your life."

"You sound as if you were talking about yourself in the third person," I noticed.

"I am," answered Destiny, seemingly not realising what I meant.

Talking helped to make time run faster and legs to hurt less. Though we hadn't much to talk about, for Destiny memories or the past were abstract terms. He neither had them nor understood what they meant, he was living a moment, without future or past. Considering that I could call his existence 'life'. Even past events so fresh like in the city didn't existing for him. Maybe the fact that I saw him as the leafeon was misleading, giving ideas that Destiny was a pokemon, while he didn't even need to be a creature. He could choose the appearance I see him, as so he wasn't 'material'. Destiny still could be just series of random events, just formed in something he, or it, was now.

"What are you doing when I don't see you?" I asked another question, we were quite close to the passage now.

"Nothing, I am only here and now, it's not that I can decide 'now I appear' 'now I disappear', I do not exist beyond you," said Destiny.

"Yet, you know that we won't see each other when I return to the pack," I pointed out.

"You know it too, it is one of the thought that swing somewhere in the back of your mind and hasn't reached the surface yet, but you won't tell me that you are not aware of that thought."

"Yeah, I am. I am just looking for the reason why all of it happened to me, and thought that maybe I missed something I had to find on this journey," I agreed.

"But the second thought says that..." replied Destiny waiting for me to continue.

"...that I found it. But I will worry about it later, now I'm going home," I said, and stood in place. We were already in the middle of the passage, I stopped hearing the second two pairs of paws and when I turned around I didn't see Destiny anywhere. "See you later, I guess," I mumbled, and continued to walk.

Soon the ground changed from rock to grass, there was a tree here and there also the landscape became more open, more familiar. I tried to recognise where I was, but it seemed that I still hadn't entered any specific region of the pack just yet. I was rather on the hunting ground, where the usually easy to hunt pokemon lived. If I had to guess, I would say that I was somewhere in the southern regions, it meant I could meet a lot of flareons here. I would probably pass the hunting grounds in a day or two and then another day of walking to reach the Middle. It was a bit annoying, theoretically, I was home but in practice, I wasn't. At least I could feel safe here, the pack existed long enough to push out of existence every pokemon that could even equal opponent to the lonely eeveelution.

I found a small lake mostly grew in tall grass, and rested on the small sandy beach. I drank a lot realising how desperately thirsty I was, then I just lied motionlessly allowing my eyes to slowly close, but I didn't plan to sleep. I just wanted to enjoy the soft sand, clear, a bit moist, air and a moment when I didn't feel any pain from any of my wounds.

I didn't know how long I was resting like that, but I opened my eyes only as the chilling air changed to cold and peaceful weather changed to windy.

I almost forgot, the winter was coming and it wasn't that far, there wouldn't be much sun these days. When I stood up I felt much better than before, my flank still hurt, but not that much to affect my movement, the pain of my face cuts didn't fade away completely ether. I looked at my reflection in the water seeing my new face.

"Unlucky," I mumbled to myself. Some scars could look cool when they were going through an eye, but mine were three long lines starting at my left cheek, going under my ear and ending at the point where my head was getting thinner changing into the neck. All three lines were covered in dark, unregular, in some places even sharp looking growth. It was reminding me about houndoom's bones that were growing outside of the body, but these on my face looked rather like dark ice. I put my head into the water and tried to wash it off, I had to wait as the water needed to calm down so I could see my reflection again, the 'dirt' on my wounds stayed unchanged. I put my head under the water once again, but the dark material didn't want to leave my face. With growing irritation, I tried to take it off with a paw. It was hard, hard like stone. I jerked it with a force to tear it away from my face.

"Ah!" I yelled at the sudden pain. Now more carefully I researched the cuts I realised I had sense in them, in this dark growth on my head. It wasn't the same sense I had in my paws, more like this I had in the leaves.

"Interesting," I mumbled, touching myself, trying to concentrate on the feeling the dark material was giving me. I was doing that until I heard a rustle in a nearby bush.

I instantly got low to the ground facing the bush, after a moment of observation I started to approach it, using my skills to avoid doing any damage and the same any sound by stomping on the grass and moving through the plants I entered the bush.

I saw some orange, almost red body, I quickly jumping rammed the pokemon and getting on the top of it pushed it to the ground. Under me was nothing different then flareon, he was quite small flareon, his muscles weren't so growth like typical fire type making him look very slim instead of bulky, he needed to be newly evolved. I saw his eyes watered and jaws started to open but not for a bite, but for a scream. With a paw, I forced his mouth to shut.

"Shhh flareon, I am not going to hurt you, I am the eon," I said, not allowing him to shout.

But why I didn't allow him to scream? I wasn't afraid of being found so what was the point? Screw you, Sonya, you affect my instincts.

I realised the flareon and he breathed heavily for a few times before he even stood up, I was patiently waiting for him sitting.

"I...," he stared.

"No, I am sorry. I scared you and I really meant to do it. I should call you before jumping at you," I interrupted him. "I am Zar, I used to live in the Middle, I am coming from...,"-the world outside? Accident?-"...expedition."

Why did I have a problem saying it normally?

"Hi," said the flareon still a bit shaky but contained. "I am... eh," he hesitated for a moment as if he forgot his name," my name is Hex," he finally said. "And I am a flareon," he added suddenly.

"Well, I see, could you tell me in which region I arrived?" I asked kindly, cooking my head to look a bit more friendly.

"Yeah," he answered and got silent.

"So, where we are?"

Hex looked around as if the question surprised him and the trees around were hiding the answer for it.

"In the forest?" Hex answered and I heavily sighted.

Yeah, not all eeveelution are intelligent, some of them just evolve into flareons.

"I meant region, where we are?"

"Region?"

"Yeah, like South, Middle or North, eventually some specific place like Glacy Peak or Sloshy Dunes, whatever," I questioned, but the obvious expression on Hex's face already told me that answer won't be satisfied,

"So, the Heat Rocks are the part of some region?" asked Hex. Though his question wasn't an answer on my question, I pick up the name, Heat Rocks were part of South region, but very far away from the Middle so I never was there, but I heard that this place was a bit different than any other in the Southern region, eaons says that was where the pack was born. They were worshipping someone in the name of Rea the Bluefire the same way the Middle was worshipping Azor. However, it was hard to find out who the character was itself. At some point, it was mixing with the legend of the grey-eyed but in another part, it was turning different. That Rea the Bluefire had to be a flareon whose fire was blue instead of a typical colour for a flareon's fire. It was quite surprising that Rea was actually a female flareon who lived since the age of grey-eyed eeveelution to the modern days. The legend said that closely before evolution, Rea left the pack going with the group of wanderers and... well, no one really knows what she was doing, but later she was frozen in the violet stone, until one day Azor found and broke and she was fried. She tried to fight the Azor the Duskeye for the leadership saying that she was the right leader, but the Azor won. However, he didn't kill Rea but mercifully banished her saying, 'If you bring me the thing you were not allowed to have, I will allow you to live between us (eeveelutions)'. No one really knew what Azor meant, but Rea went to search for it and never returned. She was probably dead, just from age, but the legend says that she was still alive, 'until the dark roots in the ground exist, her breath light up the darkness in the blue light' said the legend.

"Ekhm," coughed Hex bringing me back to the forest from my mindscape of throughs.

"Yes," I answered. "You didn't know?"

"Know what?"

"That the pack is something bigger than your group."

"Ah, that!"

Another moment of complete silence and I besides being happy from seeing a familiar face, was slowly losing my patience.

"So, what are you doing here?" I asked and I considered to hit him, when Hex once again looked around with the same surprised expression he had before.

"Walking, I guess," for his luck, he answered.

"Walking? You look newly evolved, shouldn't you be busy with learning some flareon stuff?" I asked.

"Should I?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

"There will be a nightfall soon, let's head to your group," I said.

"I wish I could walk some more," answered Hex grumbling.

"Really? In the night? Do you have any umbreons in the group?" I asked.

"N-no, I think that we don't have those dark types," answered Hex, with a little hesitation.

"So, who defends you in the night?" I started to persuade him to go to his group. Not that there was any real danger here, but we weren't deep in the pack territory. Who knows what pokemon could lurk a little in this territory to check if any eeveelution wasn't on night walk a bit too far than it should.

"I can defend myself, I am not afraid," stood proudly Hex, but he looked rather pitiful.

"When you evolved?"

"Yesterday."

"Seriously?! And you think that being evolved for two days you would be able to fight anything in the night? You probably can't even balance yourself properly yet! But, if you really want to stay, I won't go against natural selection," I said, walking away in the way I guess, could lead me to the 'Middle'. After a moment, just as I expected I heard the padding next to my side.

"I am coming with you," said Hex. "But my group is in this way. Wouldn't you mind to take a night there?"

"I would love to," I said, letting flareon ahead to guide me.

It was much farther than I thought, we walked for quite long and arrived at a small rock formation already at night.

"We are all there," said Hex, pointing one narrow entrance between stones and going first, I followed just behind him. It appeared that narrow entrance was leading to whole cave system where single dead ends were someone's dens covered in cosy leaves, straw and twigs. In every den and almost at every corner of the main tunnel was burning small fire lighting up the cave. Most of the eeveelutions were flareons who were caring the fire with them but there were also few jolteons, whose way to light up the cave could be dangerous. I saw at least one sylveon and two espeons but that would be all eeveelutions besides flareons. I kept following Hex until he stopped before another flareon. This one was fully grown and at some point in the tunnel, it could become problematic to squeeze through him. Generally, whole cave was looked claustrophobic as flareons large and bushy tails were able to fill most of the width of the tunnels, but it was also warm thank to them.

"Hello Hex, do you need anything? Your family was asking for you so you should go to her first, you need to get ready at your own after all" said the flareon.

"They were asking for me?! Gotta go then!" shouted Hex, and quickly disappear in another branch of the cave. Then the fire type looked at me.

"Hex is a bit problematic, it's a big eeveelution with a very young mind. It's very unfortunate when evolution strikes earlier than it should. But, welcome you stranger in our warm cave, from your appearance I can say you are eeveelution, but I've never seen anything that would be looking like you, I am Iska," he said.

"Hi, my name is Zar, grass type evolution of eevee isn't very popular so I am not surprised you see it for the first time. I live in the Middle and I hoped that you make it possible for me to sleep a night here, tomorrow I plan to go back to the Middle," I said. Iska slightly smiled.

"Our Elder is currently away discussing the winter with other Elders and Sogot, but I am sure that his mate will find you a comfortable place for the night among us," he said. "You will find her at the end of the main path, the last den on the left. It was good to meet you, Zar, you are the first grass type I see. They don't really like to live here with us, hehe," Iska laughed. "But I hope that our appearance won't make you feel uncomfortable. Farewell for now."

Damn, he was talking so long that I almost fall asleep just before him.

I followed his guide and found the den, a little bigger than any other I passed.

"You can enter," said the soft voice even before I could ask. Inside of the den, next to the wall was sitting female espeon. "Yeah, I know. You can use one of the empty dens, someone is already preparing you some comfortable place. It won't be the best den you ever used, but being grass type you should understand that leaves or straw are inaccessible at this season. Also, no one will destroy their own den, already prepared for cold just for your one night. When you exit my place, go right, pass three dens then turn left, the second at right is yours. Ah, don't thank me you are my guest."

She answered everything I wanted to ask as if... ah yeas, read my mind, obviously. Good that Cera wasn't talking with me this way.

I just nodded and started going to my temporary den. Going through the caves I wondered...

"Twenty-two! Sixteen of them are flareons, there are just one hundred and twenty-two dens because our population is decreasing!" I heard a shout from the den of Elder mate as I wanted to wonder how many eons live here if tunnels go so deep.

"Thank you," I shouted back.

I found my den trying to not think too much in the meantime. The den wasn't so cosy like the others I passed, but had some small pile of dry plants in the middle. I pushed the layer setting it to my own preferences before I lied down and heavily sighted.

It was so long since I had a chance to sleep in the den, without shifts, without snoring absol, wind or worries that something can hunt on me, surrounded by my compatriots. It was good to be back.


	15. CH15 'The home I didn't know'

What was worse? Being trapped alive or facing death?

Living my whole life being afraid of death I learned how to fear and how to overcome that fear. I died because I wanted, but it was only a moment.

I scratched my dark furred front paw.

The wind was peeling through the forest, jiggling with the branches of history and bushes of lies, caring leaves and memories. It almost felt almost like a real wind, it felt much more real than months ago, but still couldn't replace real breeze. This wind wasn't free, it was made on purpose and it had to serve this purpose just like everything here. I wasn't in the real world, I was here, in the world of distortion, the world that was slowly expanding. Soon there will be only Distortion World, soon everything will be on purpose and everything will be ruled by the one and even a world 'free' will die. Like the others worlds we weren't lucky to hear before they died.

I dug my paw into the dark, moist dirt enjoying, even a false, sensation of coldness.

"Are you enjoying yourself Nullus? Or you prefer to be called Part now, hmm?" asked a female voice from behind me.

"I was stupid, so stupid. So many years, just waisted. How could I be so stupid? Was it stress? Was I too young to understand? Or was it... love?" I asked, not looking back at my conversationalist. I slowly pulled out my paw from the dirt, looking at the grains of sand falls to the ground, attached to each other in small formations.

"You say you wasted a lot of time on self-pity, yet you still do."

"Yes, it looks like that, I am good at it, and that I am still stupid," I answered to the voice behind me, as the stronger wind blew rubbing my fur, creating small discharges. My zig-zag stripes on my flanks slightly light up in yellow light from the sudden energy. "I do not regret wasting time being here, this world is not worth anything different. Were are just empty and hopeless souls trapped in what's left from our lives. You promised me death, yet I am still here."

"I will kill you, but..."

"I am not interested any longer," I cut her off, twitching my jolteon's ears.

"You are not? That's a sudden change, what happened?"

"You can believe me or not. I saw a leafeon, all shining in white, he looked almost like my being leafeon. I met him by mistake. He didn't fit here," I said memorising our meeting. "He looked like a blinding light, his will was too powerful to break, I couldn't look into his mind, even you wouldn't be able."

"I am able to look into Giratina's mind, some leafeon, even if special, wouldn't be a challenge."

I smirked intentionally, making it loud so it could not go unnoticed.

"He already beat you, he found a way to leave this place, how to return to the free world, and you haven't, besides being here much longer," I said.

"Why are you are so sure about it? Maybe it was just Giratina that came to play with you?"

"It doesn't matter. That's the hope I am gonna use. Maybe I am good at wasting my time and being stupid, but at killing, I am even better. Zar, your power and strength will be mine!'

* * *

Suddenly I snapped out of the dream, jumping on all my paws and looking chaotically around. Seeing only darkness I began to scream.

"AHHHH!"

"Shat the fuck up! I am trying to sleep!" shouted the voice from the darkness, and a moment later small flame lit up the cave. The source of the flame was flareon, his name was Auron, we were together in my den, and outside was raging blizzard.

"Yes, yes, yes, it was only a dream, yeah. My apologies Auron," I said sheepishly, calmly lying back on the ground.

"Shut up! You are disturbing me for the third time this night, and I don't even know the time since you woke me last. We flareons needs sleep too!" barked Auron, extinguish the flame he was keeping, allowing the darkness into my den again and curling up to sleep.

Auron was a flareon I got for the winter, he was quite old, too old to walk through the blizzard outside, carrying messages between dens or helping other eeveelution to get through the snow, but not old enough to be anywhere near dying. He, like many other flareons, was sharing his heat, allowing eons like me to survive, as I wouldn't be able to stay warm on my own. Auron was angry at me, but I couldn't help it.

The dreams were haunting me since I returned to the Middle. Not all of them were nightmares, I was rather scared because of how real they felt. As if I really was, for the moment, the person I dream about. One day, I was the storm coming to the lights, sometimes black jolteon with yellow zig-zag stripes at the flanks, sometimes snow white absol hunting its prey, other times tall and orange nine tailed creature walking through the forests and mountains.

I calmed my breath, trying my best to let Auron sleep, I really was annoying to him. Once, I woke him seven times during one night, at morning he was so tired he couldn't even aim towards the exit to go outside. I couldn't rest too. The wound on my cheek was pulsating with pain every time I had a very real dream.

Following Auron, I curled up in the den I dug with Serge help after my return. It was far from what I imagined it to be, it wasn't distanced from the pack at all. The winter could strike at any day, there was no time to wonder about a place. The den wasn't big, it had one long but narrow corridor and one round room where I and Auron were trying to sleep. Serge said that building a den like that would be good for winter as it helps to keep warm. He also said that I should wait until the warmer season for any further building. I listened to him, not that I really had a choice, I would need his help to build anything anyway, so I decided it would be better to use his tips. He also shared with me some of his food for this season, so I was obligated to listen to him. He was a good friend, I should repay to him when the occasion strikes.

It wasn't as great with Cera and Navia. Navia seemed to not recognise me, which was hard to believe as since I left there was no other leafeon with who she could confuse me with. I also noticed her meeting one strong vaporeon with who I didn't have much chance if it would come to fight. But I really didn't know what she saw in the guy whose best text is 'you are my weakness', like, come on! Even Hex, the stupid flareon, would be able to think about something more original.

With Cera, it was more complicated. We talked, but nothing besides that. It was sad, but it seemed that she lost interest in me. Not that I blame her, I was away for quite a long time, I could understand that the feeling was weakened, but all the hopes I made myself on the way home were returning, now filling me with sadness. Everything changed, I changed, the pack changed, Navia and Cera changed, only Serge seemed to be still the same, but dark types always are hard to change. Maybe only now, in the season of the snow, he was a bit different than normal, because he was spending most of his time with Liss, his glaceon mate.

The problem was, there was no one to blame for the way I felt. I just didn't feel like in home. I was bored, lonely and hungry for most of the time. Auron was some company, but he was coming in evening and leaving in the morning, there was also nothing to talk about with him.

I thought that returning home would be like returning to the different world of endless happiness, yet it was just returning to the home and nothing more. What now?

It was too cold outside for me to be there for longer than a moment, and even in this short moment, my greyish wrinkled leaves could freeze.

I rolled by the flank to be a bit closer to the flareon, as the night was really cold and I knew that if I fall asleep I would wake up being much colder than I fall asleep.

"Hmm, what should I do?" I questioned myself, wondering how to turn my boring daily into the world of happiness I imagined.

"You should close your mouth! Please!" barked Auron, being already half-asleep.

 _Well, it was always something to start with._

I stayed quiet, but I didn't return to sleep, not because of the loud wind of the blizzard outside which I already learned to ignore, or the uncomfortable ground of my quickly dug den. I just didn't want to sleep and wanted to stay here a moment, in the complete dark.

There was something amazing about how darkness was affecting the mind. Without seeing absolutely any point to focus on, I sometimes felt as if I would be moving, besides not moving at all. I stayed like this for long, I wasn't even sure if I was blinking as there was no difference between having my eyes open or closed. I was wondering about the crack my journey created in my life. But whatever I would think about, needed to wait until snow season ends.

The dawn slowly lit up my den with weak light, not giving any warm at all. Mornings were always the coldest part of the day, no matter of the season, but now it was the most noticeable. Though it still wasn't as bad as a year ago. Since the last season of the snow, I adapted a little growing fur that actually was warming me up. but it wasn't enough.

When the den was fully lit up Auron, stood up, this time without my help in waking him. I pretended I was asleep when he slowly rose and made his way out of the den. I waited a moment before getting up too and walking through the narrow tunnel to the exit. The blizzard lightened already, but I stayed inside, only getting some of the snow on my tail. I fastly carried the snow inside the den and placed it in the small gap of the stone I had at the back of my den. Then, I dug my paws into the wall, finding two small buried bones, I returned to the warmest place of the den to eat and get my temperature back as I cooled myself when my tail-leaf touched the snow. Two small bones weren't enough to feel fed, but I couldn't eat everything I had at once.

After waiting a long while, I walked to the stone with a gap, now filled with water. I was lucky that I found the stone in this shape during digging this den, otherwise, I would need to eat the snow, melting it in my mouth.

After drinking, I ploughed into the leaves and straws that created my place to sleep, I burrowed myself under them trying to keep as much warmth as was possible until another flareon would come. It was the most boring and hard to survive season for me, the only thing I could do was staying in here. Eventually, when the weather was nice I went outside, but I needed to stay active to stand the coldness, I was usually running or training, using my leaf as a blade. Funny that playing by catching the wind in my tail turned to be a combat ability.

That how the days were going, one after another, until it got warmer and green again.

"Zar!" a harsh and powerful voice shouted from the outside, making me jump out of my warm pile. I quickly padded to the exit looked outside keeping myself hidden. There were two eons outside, from the left, an espeon I didn't recognise, shivering from the coldness, and next to him, Sogot. Besides raging blizzard, he was standing unaffected, and all the snow next to him melted even before it touched him.

I perked up my head out of the entrance, trying to avoid the coldness.

"Hello, leader and you espeon. Do you need anything from me?" I asked kindly. "Maybe you want to get in, it's not the best weather to stay out in," I added, though I didn't want him inside.

"Oh yes, please," scowled the psychic type, moving to get in, but Sogot stopped him.

"No, there is no need, I don't have much to say," said flareon, saddening the espeon. "I wanted to make you aware that punishment I put on you before your sudden disappearance wasn't cancelled or forgotten. I expected you to come to me to talk about it." Sogot was speaking calmly, but every word had so much of venom in it that it would be enough to put down raging absol. However, Sogot didn't seem so scary for me, as he was before I fell into the river. He just seemed normal, even his abnormal posture wasn't making such an impression it was once making. Lycanrocs were much bigger, Sonya in her winged form was bigger, Metro was unspeakably bigger, and there was Sogot. Annoying flareon closed in his small world that just came to me to remind me how important he was.

"Are you listening leafeon!?" I snapped back to reality, hearing my name.

"Yes, yes, I am."

"So?"

So?

 _He was asking you why you were waiting with fulfilling your punishment. Do not thank me, do not even look at me, I just want this talk to end so I can walk to some warm place._ Said helpful psychic voice in my head.

"I was busy, I needed to build a new den, collect supplies, make some small favours for a few flareons so they would come to warm me a little, I started quite late, most of them were already taken so it took some time and generally prepare myself for the winter," I answered, not even looking at the espeon, besides I wanted to thank him later.

"And you really were working so hard that you hadn't a moment for such important thing like talking to your master!? You and hard work are like two opposite poles of the magnet!" Sogot lost his temper. "Who do you think you are, to disappear for so long and then return without even saying a word where you were?!"

For the moment I freeze, not because of the temperature or that I didn't know what is a 'magnet', but a nervous movement of the espeon made me look at him and I suddenly understood why he was here.

"But it's not a secret where I was, I told Cyrus about my journey, and if he knows that, then the whole pack and probably even pokemon on the hunting terrains know it too," I said pretending to be scared and tried to not to think too much, imagine that my mind was nothing but empty dark space.

"You need to be joking if you think that I would believe in your story," snarled the flareon, but I didn't answer on the taunt just waiting for him to continue. Cyrus usually was colouring things up, so it could really turn unbelievable, even more than it already was. "The first day the weather won't be like today, I want to see you waiting at the entrance to my Leader's Den, better for you if you will be there before sunset."

Sogot turned around and walked away quickly disappearing in the falling flakes, espeon quickly padded behind him trying to walk the path of melted snow.

I returned to the warm pile of the leaves. Obviously, the story I told to Cyrus wasn't one hundred percent the truth. I cut away these more amazing moments and pokemon I met, I never mentioned Metro, lycanrocs, weird shadow or Sonya. I modified places so they all seemed to be forest similar to these around the pack. I didn't know why, but I just felt that I should keep it for myself, for now, Cera and Serge also didn't know. I couldn't understand this feeling by myself, so how I supposed to explain to them to not talk about it. Also, Serge was sometimes going depressed, so why should I add him more worries and Cera, well, she was a good friend but she always kept her distance, especially after my return. It would be unfair if I would tell her and not Serge.

I was sure that there would be a better time to tell them about everything that happened, but it wasn't yet this time.

I spend my day training my grass type ability to make plant to grow. Focusing on the ground, I could force some small plant to suddenly grow out of nowhere. Or it just looked as if the new stem was growing out of nowhere. What I was doing was locating buried seeds and forcing them to absorb minerals from the ground and grow. It wasn't possible to do it for more than a few times in one place, due to the lack of minerals or seeds. What was annoying me was that everything I was creating was suddenly dying just as I stopped focusing on it changing its colour to white, developing expanding holes until there was nothing more than dust after the newly grow plant.

Another change in my life, leaving I had nothing to work on, being back here I had a lot of abilities to learn and master. Risking my life I, started to depend on the instincts that lead me to new abilities, so far: powering my leaves making them stronger and able to cut or growing small stems from the ground. The more mysterious ones were dark-type moves I used battling Sonya, however, I couldn't repeat them. Maybe I had something with eating meat, night and negative emotions? Just guessing from what I knew about dark-types, but that would fit the state I was back then when I actually used them. Through the most interesting for me abilities were newly discovered possibility with healing, or during the healing. The pollen I was using to help wounds to heal could be modified and could affect eeveelutions or other pokemon I used it on. Though I wasn't able to control my leaves good enough to modify these small molecules to perfectly fit my intention, it was still interesting to me that my exudation could do more than just heal.

The day passed, leaving me bored and napping. I woke up only when a new flareon come to help me warm the den for the night.

"Hello!" she loudly shouted through the entrance, snapping me out of the light nap.

"Come in," I answered, staying in the pile of leaves as my den cooled so much that I didn't dare to leave it. The flareon was very typical as any other flareon, the only fact that made a difference between her, Iska or Auron was that she was female, so she wasn't as bulky as them, though compared to other eeveelutions, she still was bulky, and that she wasn't here only because of having favour to me by healing her or someone she knew. We were of the same generation, raised together in the one eevee bunch before each of us evolved. Our paths went different ways but she agreed to warm me up for the night just for being once friends. "Hello, Anairda." I welcomed her when she walked in.

Besides, we were in one bunch she evolved earlier than me, as I was one of the early-evolving eevees. I remember that she had beautiful looking mane back in the eevee days, but her character was somehow dull, though that didn't stop her finding a mate. But saying honestly, every male before middle age was very easy to take if some female was determined to have someone. All she needs to be is to be at least decent at the beginning of the acquaintanceship to change in a few days of the meeting to real sex-bomb to this one 'caught' male. So did Anirda and that was good because I could, without worry, share a den with her for the night. Not that I really thought that she would be interested in me, after my return to the pack, the self-assessment of my attractiveness way lying and crying, as all affection I was getting lately was Serge checking if I was still alive and if I had a chance to be alive to his next visit.

"You can sleep over there," I posited the same spot Auron was sleeping last night, not leaving my place. She walked and took the place pointed by me.

"It is quite cold here, no wonder you need help to warm this up," she commented, lying down and I already could feel strong radiations of warm coming across the den.

Being eevee I was always wondering when were flareons doing this? Why are they offering themselves to help warm others' dens, usually leaving their own in the cold. Well, there was only a few occasions when flareons could be useful and it was one of these. Doing these for a favour they could be sure that in a season when they don't have anything to offer, they would achieve needed help. Glaceons and umbreons didn't need their help, but the whole rest required it in the winter, though only espeons (and I) needed them every night. Vaporeons, the most dominant in number group of eons, were used to the lower temperatures because the water always was colder than air so they were visited by flareon only once for few days. Jolteons were too active to be cold, sylveons always had someone with who they could to share the warmth, as they were avoiding staying alone, so there was always a lot of flareons for espeons (and me) to use.

As the warmer my den got, the more comfortable to sleep I felt. That how the snow season was going to be, I would rarely leave my warm place, sleeping most of the day and night waiting for the warmer time or when the weather would be a bit better than it was now.

From the rhythm of fire type breathing I could guess that she was falling asleep too, it was quite typical. You never could rest as good as in your own den, but spending a whole day outside and then going to someone's den the first thought could be 'go to sleep'. That was okay, there were no other things to do in the night anyway.

* * *

It was already a late night, and the night during this season was much longer than in seasons of the sun. I was still awake, besides lying motionless and having my eyes closed, I couldn't sleep. It was making me tired, tired of trying to fall asleep. So many days of doing nothing, it was torture. Not so long ago my life was nothing more than just doing nothing, but this journey woke up some part of me which evolution put to sleep, and this part needed to move, needed to walk, needed to be wild. I couldn't look at the pack the same way I once was, I thought about leaving. To go far far away, to fulfil childish dreams, to understand what I saw so far, and there was a lot to explain. However, the other part of me didn't want to leave, everything I truly knew, everything I had was here. Going away from all of that, going away from the pack I would turn away from myself.

But from another paw, what could I achieve by staying? What future awaited me here if I stay conservative and keep living with everyone else? Did I really want to lay on the same clearing, drink the water from the same river, look at the faces of my friends as we all would grow old and die with empty hearth, and become like the ruins of the City of Dreams? I was already seven seasons old, one-third of my life, if there was a time when I could to chose my life, it was now. I need to give my life a meaning.

I should talk about it with someone, closing these thoughts in my mind won't help me, but eventually drive me mad, but with who should I talk? I would need someone like me, someone who wouldn't be nameless, someone desired for greatness!

My heart sank for the moment. Why did my own thought sound so strange to me? When did I change so much? I noticed this back there in the tunnel where I saw my reflection, but it was now when I noticed how far away I was from what I once was.

I didn't want to just lazily lie in the sun, not really bothering myself that I was weak, that this life would be okay to have. Now I wanted to achieve more, I wanted to achieve anything. I had genes of Azor, the one who was able to be someone, and, who knows, maybe I have genes of the legendary grey-eyed evolutions?

I stood up and walked to the exit, the snow level was far above my head, but the warmth coming out of my den kept melting a small hole in the snow from which cold air was coming inside. I picked some snow on my leaf and quickly padded to place it in the stone. Having flareon nearby made snow melt even faster than before. When I drank, I went for the snow once again, but now leaving it so I may drink it in the morning. Flareons drank water very rarely, so I doubt that Anirda would want a drink too. Though I could find this out soon, as I noticed that it started to get brighter as the sun slightly looked over the horizon. Normally at this time of the day of a different season, it could be noon, but at the current season, the sun never went far from the horizon as if scared of the cold and freezing in the middle of the sky, unprotected by the horizon. Somehow, I felt sad that the darkness was leaving my den changing into the dusk, darkness always was so cuddlesome and nice. It was freeing me from seeing the world by eyes and helping internal view to become dominant, to free thoughts and help to focus on them. The light was bringing reality and reminding about limits.

A long time passed since sunrise before flareon woke up, or at least her body woke up as she wasn't reacting to the environment as the fully awoken eon would, bumping against the walls, shakily walking outside, leaving me alone again.

After a few days of storming and powerful whizzing wind, the blizzard ended, leaving a weird and uncomfortable silence. I set my eyes upon the entrance. It was so silent, so peaceful, almost unnaturally.

How many times were you falling asleep, not aware of pokemon you may even don't know?

"Ah, shut up!" I snapped out on the haunting thought. I was in the 'Middle', the safest place to be for an eon. Half of the pack would be dead before anything would reach the 'Middle', and the 'Middle probably wouldn't wait for this thing to come. In the real danger, there wouldn't be complete silence.

Yet, I couldn't look away from the entrance to my den which a flareon used some time ago.

"Fuck, I am getting some phobia," I commented but still, any attempt of looking away was making me uncomfortable.

It was when I was trying to focus on something else, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a movement of something dark. I impulsively jumped lowering my head and powering my leaf on the forehead for a cut.

"Hey, hey, calm down, I am just checking on you," said a familiar looking older umbreon, slightly blinking his blue rings, showing that he was nervous in the current situation.

"Oh, Serge! Sorry, I just... got a little scared," I apologised. I saw how his eyes grow from the joy.

"YES! Finally, you admitted that I am scaring you! Yes! I thought that I won't live to this moment!" exclaimed Serge, rapidly blinking in the blue light.

"Eh, I rather meant as snapped out of the thought," I said.

"Oh, my happiness decrees by a half."

"Anyway, it's nice to see you," I welcomed him and gave him some space so he could make himself comfortable. "What happened? Morning isn't your typical time for a visit."

"Ah, you know. Today I had to make an exception to my nocturnal habits. Glaceons are leaving, I had to say her goodbye during the morning before she left," said Serge.

"That means that this season of snow is about to end. Sorry, but for me is good news,' I simpered.

"But for me, it's good news too," smirked umbreon.

"Why? Aren't you sad that you won't see Liss for a long period of time?" I asked, as I thought it could be a reason for the sudden visit.

"Well, it's not like we need to be together all of the time. I think it's good to have some breaks. I even think that staying together too long is the easiest way to end a relationship," said Serge, sitting down on the same place where flareon was sleeping, probably finding it still warm.

"I don't get it, how staying together can be a reason to brake?" I asked.

"Oh, Zar, you are so inexperienced with mates. You will never find a female with which you would be able to spend all of your time. Females are good for a short period of time, and you are about to use this good time and avoid this bad time. Seriously, when you keep a female close to you too long you won't even notice when she starts cleaning your den, calculating how long you were doing things which weren't for her and complain that you are coming back home too late. A female needs to miss you to make a relationship successful, that's why you can't spend all of your time together. I and Liss have limited time to the one season, so we spend it all together to later spend it separately resting from each other, other eeveelution doesn't have such luxury as glaceons are the only type in the pack that can't stay in the 'Middle' forever. But others deal with it differently, like going on a hunting trip for example. Though there is also the second barrier like that you have to give your female enough attention so she could miss you in times when you are not giving her attention," explained Serge, gesticulating with one paw.

"I thought that you love Liss," I commented.

"Because I do! That's why I am trying so hard to make our relation happy! You can learn from me or find out about it by yourself, at your age I thought similar to you. That a female needs to be almost over-shipped before she allows you close to herself, but that's not how it works. That's how females would like this to work, and inexperienced males like you believe it without a second thought, because they don't think with this,"-he patted his head.-"instead they think with this," he pointed down. "And some females are going to take advantage on you if you keep thinking like that.

"You need to remember, you are not here to be chosen, but to be one who chooses! After all, there are more females in the pack than males, they are at a losing position before this fight even begun," laughed the dark-type, but stopped seeing that I didn't join him.

"Okay, I can't take it any longer. What's bothering you? I haven't seen you laugh since you returned. What's wrong?" asked Serge, suddenly changing his tone to a serious one. He asked in a tactical way, directly, if I lie or say half-true he would immediately know that, by being dark-type.

"I am just wondering," I answered.

"About?"

"About the future, about the pack, species, the journey I survived. I think it's calling me back. I have an idea that my place is somewhere 'there', that I never was destined to be back here. It just... I just... did so much, saw a lot, and now it doesn't even matter. I didn't return to the same pack I left, I didn't return the same as I left. Everything seems so different, so boring, so useless!"

"Maybe it is because in the time of absence everyone learned how to live without you and you miss some attention? I would be truly hurt if I would be travelling through the wilderness, alone for many days, just to be met by the pack which doesn't need me anymore but there is no one to blame. We can't blame the pack that's able to replace everyone, it's good that we can prevail, that we are not addicted to any eeveelution. It's just how it is," said Serge, and I lied down, foreseeing a long monologue. "Or is it only because of lack of affection from our espeon friend, hmm? You can't blame her, you disappear all of sudden and I can guess that you had something planned together, Cera was very sad... and angry, I don't know more, she is rather your friend than mine and I know her only because of you. so I wasn't asking, though I find it weird that she was giving you more attention before you disappeared, you were looking so delicate like the fog, now you look strong, as for leafeon. However firstly I thought that something didn't go well but in that case, you would find me to talk, there were also rumours that you died in the river but we were told by some old crazy espeon, so I didn't believe."

"Was it Vilastraaday? I have to ask him a few questions," I asked, considering that the best beginning of my search about the Dark Litter could be asking Azor's line.

"I think it was him. You remember the name like that?!" gasped Serge.

"Well, it was the last eeveelution I spoke with before actually falling into the river, so it kind of burred into my mind, but it wasn't the thing I wanted to ask you about. You said that the pack learned how to live without me, how am I supposed to undo this?" I asked, sitting up again. Umbreon wondered for a moment before his blue rings blinked with an idea.

"Well, you can start by trying to remind that you are back and alive, show here and there, prove others that you are useful, I don't know… have you anything on mind that may bring you some attention?"

I had, but I was hesitating with deciding if I wasn't to use it. It was dangerous, but not very much more dangerous than a few burns.

"There is one opportunity, I think I would have to face it anyway sooner or later. When I put to sleep the whole Middle, relaxing at the lagoon my punishment had to be fighting with everyone who would like to train, even with a type disadvantage. However, if I avoid it, I would have had to fight with Sogot himself and I avoided it, so, I guess I have to go to Sogot and propose him a training, I think it's what he expects me to do."


	16. Ch 16 'Foreplay'

"Stupid idea," commented Serge, shaking his head. "Very, I mean incredibly stupid idea! Obvious is when you lose you'll be wounded, even if he goes easy on you, but you can be sure that he won't. Remember that he still sees you as a rival for Cera, getting this competition on the open field leaves you without any chances! Also, think about the situation you'll place Cera in, now it's just words and suggestions scrimmage. Sogot would not challenge you yet, as it would place him in a bad light: the strong and powerful leader challenging a newly evolved eeveelution with type disadvantage, breaking young love. But if you challenge him you would end up as some hot-headed youngling that wants to fight the sun."

"Calm down, it's just one training," I spoke calmly.

"For you training, but for other eeveelutions? Some may say that was beating the competition for the mate, others, reminding that Sogot hasn't been seen in a fight since betting Azor, found someone equal to fight. Though, if you would apparently show some chance to actually win, Sogot might try to kill you before your chances grow. Generally, there would be no way it could work for you. That's why Sogot tries to force you to do it," insisted the umbreon.

"I don't understand., why he would try to do it?"

"Because it's Sogot, he didn't used to stop from anything and you are a thorn in his ass that blocks his way to his wanted mate. Even if Cera wasn't pretty or psychically strong, he would keep annoying you because of the memory that this thorn once was in his ass. Also an espeon as a mate of the leader would be very helpful for him."

"So, I shouldn't fight him even if I didn't even plan to resist too much?" I asked.

"Absolutely no! It's a test, he checks if he is able to provocate you, the second one would be on the battlefield, he would check how much you learned when you were away," said Serge, and scratched his long ear.

"Why you have an idea that I learned anything?" I questioned feeling my fur on the back unnoticeably stand up.

"Please Zar, let's respect each other, you know my type and it's not some mystery that I use to use my type to take an advantage over others. Maybe you would false some umbreon that doesn't know you, but I've known you since you were born, I knew you even before I evolved so I know that things that Cyrus tell at left and right aren't true, I know that you, even if you aren't the smartest eeveelution I know, wouldn't tell Cyrus everything you survived, you know sylveons. I do not require you to tell me everything now, I can understand you have a reason to keep it for yourself, that's also the reason why you shouldn't fight with Sogot. During the fight, he can learn about you more than you think is possible."

"So... you are not mad at me? Are you not angry that I lied, that I kept secrets?" I asked worriedly.

"Oh, Zar. Everyone has their secrets, being an umbreon I know when someone tries to hide something, and everyone has something to hide, so what's the point in being angry just because you kept something for yourself? I know you, you will tell me sooner or later, you just need to get ready for it, and I am not going to force you. I am a friend to you, if I would try to force you to say anything you don't want, how different I would be from Sogot? I would become even worse," said Serge and stood up, walking slowly, he put his paw on my forehead. "These wounds and shadow in your eyes give me more information. Even if you would decide to never tell me what you survived."

He returned to his seat and we just sat like that in silence. He surprised me a bit with his guessing, he really knew me. I only wondered if Cera knew me that much too. She could check what was true even easier than Serge, maybe that was why she kept her distance since I returned? Maybe she was feeling something that worried her? I should talk with her, but not some typical talk we had a few times, but a real talk I hadn't with her for a long time. I just needed to catch her when she wasn't busy, tired or out of the mood, that was hard in relations with females, with males time wasn't important, if they were your friends they always were for you, with females it was more complicated.

"Thanks, Serge, you are a good friend, best I could imagine," I thanked him for feeling somehow better.

"I am trying to, you know, being dark-type makes it really hard to be nice," he smirked, giving one of his best smiles, but the oversized fangs umbreons have made it somehow uncomfortable to watch. He smirked, "After all, I may just attack you all of the sudden, thinking that the death of my friend may power up my emotions, making me stronger."

"Heh, uh...yeah, that's kind of nice," I chuckled. "Talking about dark-type going berserk, does that happen often?"

"No, not at all. Or at least among umbreons, I don't know about other species, but I think that every dark-type that lives in a group has a good control over themself, maybe some lonely hunters are a bit more unstable," said Serge. "Hmm, it can be interesting fighting dark-type that went mad. I don't mean some newly evolved umbreon, you pin them down on three seconds and they are back to normal, but some truly experienced pokemon. I wonder if blind fury would make it stronger or weaker."

"I would prefer to avoid a confrontation like that," I assumed. The second time some luck could not be enough.

"But it's not like only dark-types can go berserk, everyone can get angry. Obviously, there are those who go angry easier, like flareons, jolteons and said umbreons and these calmer ones like the whole rest. About leafeon, I don't know, guess you need to find this out by yourself," the blue-ringed umbreon added after the moment.

"I don't think that I ever had some attack of anger, sadness or any other emotion to the point it could be somehow dangerous," I hinted.

"Yeah, I would place you rather with calm eeveelutions group, though sometimes your taunts make me want to bite you, really really hard. So, who is this dark type you met?" Serge suddenly asked, and my mind filled with a void as if all thoughts flew away saying 'fuck it, deal with it by yourself'. I opened my mouth to answer, but quickly closed it as no words came from my tongue.

"Oh, don't be so surprised, last time when you were asking me about my type was when you fall in love with some umbreon, Paw wasn't it? I've also known you long enough that you do not ask about things that don't interest you. So tell me, is she nice? Round and slim were she should? Rushy or quiet? Oh, well, first of all, if she is smart? After all even best female has no future if she is just stupid," kept asking Serge.

"Okay, okay, yes, yes and yes but I am not asking in 'this' way this time but how did you know?" I finally came out of shock and wave of umbreon's questions.

"Pff, I know you since you cracked your egg, even if I was so young then that I barely remember anything, but I know you. But wait. Not in 'this' way? Well, whenever you really were I want to go there too."

"No, you don't want to, trust me, I don't even know how I managed to go through this all alive," I said sadly.

"But it seems that we have to, it's haunting you. You behave differently, you are scared, worried, you have impulsive movement and wild eyes. You train combat moves alone and you don't trust me, us." I looked away staring at the round stone filled with water in a shame. When Serge become a fucking mind reader?

"He, never but not only he knows you well." I quickly looked at the entrance now filled with Cera and her big blue eyes looking at me.

"Cera?! Uhm, well you are welcome but what you are doing here?" I asked surprised, gazing also at Serge for the answer. "Wait, do I correctly assume that you read my mind?"

"We are here to help you and I just heard some flying around thoughts but I did it in good intentions. You worry a lot, more than you used to. Being an espeon I am obligated to keep your mindset in good condition, so is Serge for your sadness. If we already have our roles set we should fulfil them," Cera said sitting next to me. "Maybe the grass isn't that green and sky as blue as when you disappeared but we are still here, you just need to trust us again."

"It is... not so easy, everything I survived seems now so unreal that today, I don't know how it could be real," I said in a trembling voice.

Cera got up and came closer.

"We can deal with it, if you allow me," she said locking her eyes with mine.

"Hey, I want to see it too," protested Serge.

"Serge, aren't you dark-type? How am I supposed to psychically show you anything?" asked rhetorical espeon not looking away from me. "Please, let us help you, you were there for us more than once."

I breathed heavily but nodded, I couldn't find any argument against it. Thought I wasn't really trying to resist to that help, I just had a hunch that I should keep everything for myself. But it wasn't the first time when I had an internal conflict that instead of being helpful in final decision was delaying me from making the right move at all. Move I already knew I should make, because I always was depending on my friends, why shouldn't I now?

After a moment, I could feel, gentle but still uncomfortable pressure on my head. I already learned that reading thought by espeon is something as easy as hearing but reading memories is a more invasive part of the psychic. The feeling I had now was Cera's preparation, a time when she wasn't learning my memories just yet but the time when she was examining the way my mind was working. Funny thing, after the preparation like that she could know me better than I know myself, funny but also scary. I never threatened or thought about Cera or any other espeon or psychic like some higher creature, just different type. But the fact that she could overpower my mind with her own, take control and...

"Zar, seriously, shut up," said suddenly Cera. "It was long since I heard something so stupid as your thoughts now, the way you always treated me was the most correct and accurate. After all, we are the same species, type makes us better in some small area of possibilities, but evolution itself never made anyone smarter, stronger or prettier, it's just addiction the effort and lifestyle we already lived. Maybe now I think a bit faster than you or both you and Serge put together, I am psychic after all, however, you for sure are better in things I wasn't reaching for like... uhm.. biting, biting for example." The espeon shot a short glance at the umbreon. "Now, calm down and try to stay calm. And do not talk, even internally."

My view slowly becomes blurry, the appearance of Cera and Serge, the den, anything faded away mixing with a dozen colours. Out of nowhere, my head hit the sheet of the raging river, a moment later I was at the bank of the river next to the burned forest. The imagines were speeding up, going faster than it was possible to run beside I wasn't running at all. Healing Agaar that after a moment appeared to be absol named Sonya. The dark forest and visions of bleeding trees, houndours, shadows, winged absol, forest again, my small hunting, eggs on the meal. The roads covered by a thick layer of the dust, surrounded by cinders of buildings and rust. Then the view filled single giant yellow eye, burning with fire and blinding with its yellowness. The race of images stopped here, there was only the eye and I was sinking into it, it was only bigger and bigger until I couldn't see anything different, until dramatic female scream snapped me out and all the colours and shapes returned on their places creating my den, Serge and Cera.

Cera was screaming, trying to cover her head in both paws she was rolling on the ground moaning, screaming and crying.

I wanted to help, I wanted to do something for her, but as I made a step forward my own mind was attacked by the way of pain and heaviness. I didn't even notice when I laid flat on the ground, with my own throat making similar to Cera's scream, where there was nothing more than a pain in my mind, as if thousands of tiny claws tried to rip apart my mind. Suddenly the powerful flash of blue light filled my view even by the closed eyelids stopping the agonising experience, covering everything in the dark layer of unconsciousness and dreamless dream. Or would cover if not the same blue light penetrating my closed eyelids, scaring away the dreams and bringing me back to the reality, to the lit in the blue, cave, my den but with devastated walls, ground and roof losing completely any shape I gave it while digging. From the ground was smoking dark blue mist that quickly was disappearing in the air. The only source of the light was an umbreon with his blue rings shining bright, standing stable on all four spread legs.

"What happen?" I mumbled trying to shake out of the confusion that made me unable to say where the top or bottom was, changing my attempt to stand up into multiple stumbles finished with slow fall on the flank when my muscles were trying and failing to fight of gravitation.

"Shh, it's okay. It was just a dark-type move I had to use to stop Cera's psychic," explained umbreon, pushing me down, preventing my another attempt to stand up. "Stay down, for now. This move confuses everyone in range, just stay calm for the while and you will return to your senses."

"What about Cera?" I asked.

"Surprisingly, my move affected her much more than it affected you. You really grew manly on your journey to stand my pulse standing just next to me."

"Pulse?" I asked, unsure, while the world still was spinning around me even if I wasn't moving.

"Ah, stupid slogan, the move I used, It's called like that. What I meant was an explosion of dark energy. Doing it I blocked psychic," explained Serge, but his word seemed to fly in one of my ears and fly off out the another as my mind wasn't recording anything yet. "Though, it affected Cera really badly, I mean, she isn't bleeding or have any visible damage on her, her lavender skin doesn't have even the slightest mark of being touch, yet she kept holding her head in her paws being curled up next to the wall. Besides, I need to say, this position exposed her great figure making me understand what you see in her. Like perfect 'five' on 'three' between hips and stomach and another 'nine' in the lower part, thought Liss still has..."

"What are you talking to me?" I asked being unable to follow Serge train of words and having problems to understand the space around me. Another attempt to stand ended as a fail and I allow myself to just lay motionless.

"Sorry Zar, and Cera, I kind of panicked seeing you two screaming and made my move. Guess, if you are fine, I will leave you for a moment. I heard that memory reading shouldn't be disturbed but something went wrong... I will just leave you two together," kept mumbling blue umbreon and at the corner of my view I saw that he lifted Cera by the back of her neck and put her on me. Besides, she was really light as espeon, because of a similar body build I felt her weight on my chest not as something that could be ignored. Before I could say anything Serge left my den leaving me under unconscious Cera. Cloudy mind and weight on my chest made me unable to move more than turning my neck on left or right in the attempt to restore orientation of where I was.

With Cera peacefully laying on me, I could say that I was lucky, but I really wanted to fall asleep and forget about my current headache. However, an increased effort of breathing due to Cera lying on my chest kept me awake. The sensation didn't stand for long, Cera suddenly snapped out with an impulsive kick of her rears that hit my middle pushing an air out of my lungs.

"OH!" I yelped curing up as Cera fell off of me. She rolled and stood up, quickly looking around at my damaged den, spotting me on the ground.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to," she apologised petting my head. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I answered. "Do you always wake up like this?"

"No, I just felt as if I was falling. Very deep into nothing but darkness, then I suddenly hit the ground and well... woke up," Cera explained when I changed my position and sat.

"So, I guess something went wrong," I started.

"Wrong is a very gentle word to describe what happened. I screwed it up so much that it couldn't be worse. I am so sorry Zar, I could kill by this! I am so stupid, stupid stupid!" Cera very smoothly changed her typical voice into resisting to cry and actually slightly crying and suddenly going into heavily crying when she jumped at me catching me in a tight embrace and crying in my chest. "I am sorry! Sorry! You could die or be retarded for the rest of your life! I will never forgive myself that I risked you so... that I could lose you here!" Cera's words became hard to fathom mumble as my fur become wetter and wetter.

I blushed slightly as my grassy part of me didn't really realise what was happening and started to absorb water from Cera's tears as if it would be just another source of water, very salty source of water.

It wasn't long when she got tired and only sobs and snivels could be heard, her body slightly shivering.

"You know we need to do it again?" asked silently espeon.

"You want to do it again?" I asked realising my confusion.

"No, but as Serge said, memory reading can't be disturbed. It needs to be properly finished," said Cera still with head in my chest.

"So, you need to read them all?"

"No that's not the point. Memory reading is possible by connecting two minds into one. Dark type move drowns out this effect but didn't finish it. This psychic connection still exists, I would break it now but I am too unstable to do it without risk," she finally backed off and stood up. "I will find you when I will be ready, I need to rest and calm down. Since then, please, try to avoid using any grass type ability or any other kind of abilities. It's not that being connected to me gives you psychic abilities, but there is a risk that your action triggers me to unwillingly do something and vice versa. It rather won't be dangerous but we don't want a psychic or... grass-type kind of energy, to float randomly around."

"Oh, okay, I try to remember," I agreed and Cera moved to the exit that was now much larger than I memorise.

"Of course you will remember, you can say we use shared brain. See you later Zar," said Cera, being completely back to her typical herself. She needed to look like that, after all, she was about to walk through the centre of the Middle.

"Bye," I said back, as lavender tail disappeared from my view.

I stayed in my den, not knowing the time of the day nor weather. So far I didn't feel any difference of having my mind connected to anything, I felt just normal, just tired. Yet I couldn't rest. Any position wasn't comfortable but irritating. My ears twitched again and the tail was wagging from side to side. I was behaving as if my body was energised and ready to run and at the same time I felt lazy and wasted.

Rising voices outside made me finally stand up and walk outside. I didn't know how long memory reading lasted, but the sun didn't do halfway through the sky yet, shining through the trees crowns. The air still was cold but while standing in the sunlight I could feel warm.

The source of noise was a group of eeveelutions caring and placing small dark stones that were leaving dark dirty marks on everything it touched, coal. The pair of vaporeons and single flareon were making a narrow path of coal and connecting it with others already placed path of dark stone between many dens entrances. Flareon was manly instructing vaporeons how stones should be places regularly reminding them to double check if coal wasn't too close to anything that could easily spread fire in an uncontrolled way.

I completely forgot about that, every time the season of the snow had to end there was huge gathering in the pack. A traditional event, the paths of coal were about to be set on fire not only to lit up the night in its dim light but also to make storage for the winter food crispy and easier to eat as the meat that lied whole winter burrowed in the ground wasn't tasty or easy to eat anymore. It was also the occasion for the leader to say few words to the pack, usually reminding what's the goal of the pack, what we would try to achieve this time and other fancy shit. Whatever it would be everyday live stays the same the same as always. Thought I heard rumours that this time Sogoth planned something special, something he brought from humans world to make our pack more 'social', whatever this word meant.

Besides of all the attractions that the event had to offer, the most important was the official beginning of the mating season. Through everyone could get in pair whenever he or she had liking than to make it something more than a fleeting relationship. But this part of the event was taking place somewhere else as the beginning of the mating season wasn't just simple 'announced' but real beginning of a mating season in the whole of this term means. I hadn't in my plans to be there, even if I and Cera were really close together I wouldn't decide to do 'that' in public. Because besides everyone around would be doing the same we would do it still would be in public. The tradition was tradition, but I thought that there is enough of idiots to fill the place so no one would miss me there among them, I also doubted that if I and Cera would be really together, Cera would have any willingness to go there. She didn't seem to be from those who need to show their emotions to everyone.

Just when I wanted to go back to my den my view become blurry for the moment and when I looked again I was in some den. I was sitting on a soft pile of leaves and before me was single male espeon dullnessly talking as his eyes were shining in the violet light.

"...six and seven normal, eight and nine normal, ten and eleven peaceful but with a small abomination, hardness with positive thinking, depressed mood. Twelve is unstable, Fluffer was already sent to check what's going on but I can guess that's because of..."

"You could leave Fluffer at home, I know what's wrong with twelve, this region is specific. My friend was there and he said that eons in this region are okay," I said unwillingly as my mouths moved at their own. I quickly noticed that the voice sounded much softer than it should and that mouths weren't the only thing that moves unwillingly.

"You mean this leafeon, right?" asked bored espeon as his eyes stopped glowing and something heavy fall on the ground in the background. He looked up at 'me'. "Oh, Cera. 'Okay' is not enough, especially from a leafeon's mouths. What madness still keep you trusting him? I can understand some crush but you are too experienced to have crushes at some random eeveelutions."

"And why you are so assertive toward him? I know him... seems like forever. He can be trusted," said again 'I' but with the voice of Cera.

"Yes, you knew him. To the moment he evolved into leafeon," said an older male espeon.

"Why does it mean so much to you? Would it be any different if he would evolve into anything else?" Cera through whose eyes it seemed I was looking now, said.

"Yes, it would. You see, leafeon is not just some evolution. Just like espeons, leafeons has their arcana that grand powerful powers that can't be controlled. Types are not equal, powers of flareon or umbreon can't leave its body but leafeons can. Another fact is that he survived on his own away from the pack. Zar, leafeon, untrained and unskilled. He returns after living on his own in the wild and came from the City of Ruined Ideals just with few scars."

"I still miss the point you try to make," said Cera.

"That's the wild we live in, 'The pack' isn't truly wild. We have a society, cooperation, general safety and no worries of food. We are degenerated but adapted. Adapted to the environment we created around, but we lost abilities we once had to survive in 'real' wild. And here is Zar, eon that goal seems to be to go against any possible scheme we know," said Vion as his eyes glowed once more and something behind him flew off the ground.

"I do not agree with you with our degeneration. We still have the same abilities we always had, no matter of the generation. The difference is that now abilities are spread over many eeveelutions. When a group has four or less eons, then everyone needs to know everything. Not mastering it, just learn enough to survive. Now we can master certain abilities like the psychic we are doing. We are far more powerful in our psychic possibilities than espeons from times when the pack was starting, because espeons back then needed to use their time for surviving. Now every eon has a task that gives each of us much more time to do other things than just surviving. With that changed our way of life and viewpoint. That's why we do not drool like crazy when seeing piece of meat, that's why eeveelutions do not fuck with each other in public every day and night, that's why we do more than hunt, eat, sleep and reproduce. It's our progress but what I meant, what's the point with his type?" asked after the long monologue Cera and I felt how dry her mouths get.

"The point is that leafeons, from the all possible eeveelutions, are the most dangerous. Yeah, flareons are carrying a flame of anger and rage inside, umbreons are able to do terrible things to satisfy their type and espeons sometimes use their powers to mess with someone's mind but all of it still in control. We control this, me, you and all other trusted espeon that are part of the Lodge. Leafeons can overcome that control," said male espeon.

"Vion, you talk as if there was a dozen of leafeons in the pack. I think that was obvious that sooner or later one eevee evolve into this grass type. It's just another eon, why you are so afraid of him? What can he do? Grew some flowers or make an apple sweeter than it usually is? What's here to control? Please, it's just Zar. He is amusing in his own way, but not in the way you want to see him. If you would know him since he was eevee you would know that he didn't change that much," said Cera and male espeon Vion shook his head. "Also remember that the Lodge is not supposed to control but to help. We do not gather together most of the espeons of the pack to make a 'control' but to keep happiness at the highest possible level. All these psychic scans, foreseeing, help we give using our multiple talents is not for control, so stop talking about leafeon being a danger before someone get the wrong idea of what we are doing. We supposed to listen to everyone's worries and help everyone with subtle advice. I think that there are no doubts what espeon/s role is and everyone accepted it by evolving. Vion, you like to think that everyone thinks similar to you, that argument that convinced you can convince everyone. Then I have to ask, if each of us were determined to become a psychic type and take care of our weakly minded friends, then why you think that Zar wasn't determined to do the same thing? That he became leafeon for us, to serve at the field no one served? After all his abilities already saved many eons. Have you heard of anyone that anyone died from fever, poison or other illness since last year? Since we have a leafeon in the pack?"

"All leafeons are nice and good, willing to help like every other eeveelution. After all, friendship is the main attribute that unites the pack and blears the difference between types. That's their nature, the nature of every one of us, so I am not surprised you don't see a danger in him, he is an eeveelution after all, eeveelution like everyone around here and eon is always a friend for another eon. But you need to remember that we live in the world that everything that's good has its second side. Your dearest friend can be your worst enemy, as much of help espeons be, as much damage they can cause. It was just a year and he helped a lot but he is blind in what he is doing. He keeps doing everything that current situation request. He heals because someone needs to be healed, he stimulates plants because someone asked him to do so, he exhales pleasing fumes at the command. He doesn't wonder if it's good or bad, so far he was surrounded by good friends that didn't want to use him for anything bad. I doubt if he ever had occasion to learn to find a line between good and evil, doing only good you do not know where is the edge. I only suggested our control over him to make his future easier, he can learn by practice but then this leafeon can give you, the same amount of help and pain. We mighty simulate him both good and evil, teach where is the edge, create psychic barriers at an area we are worried about, Fluffer said me that Zar keeps himself busy training offensive uses of his type, while we do not need grass-type for combat but for more supporting roles. It worried me to that point that I wondered if he still is able to heal. After all, he didn't heal his own scars. But do not understand me wrong, I am not afraid that Zar will do something terrible willingly, but that someone uses him for that purpose. Leafeons are not psychic or dark type yet they have power equal to ours, a weakness is their mind that can be easily overcome and forced to serve. You know it already, his mind is just like an open field where you can enter without any problems and do whatever you want," said Vion.

"Yes, here you have right. At the psychic level, Zar is very weak. Like a dew on the leaf that slightly touched would fall on the ground. But it's not the open field. There are one huge bunch bushes in the middle of the said field that can't be invaded. It's where the secrets are and they will stay there untouched. No matter who would try to see them," said confident Cera. "But I never did anything this way."

"I didn't say that you did, I didn't do that either but you know that someone might do it. My worries are correct with everything you said, with everything that Lodge should do. My motives aren't from fear of power beyond control but destructive power of third parties infiltrating the pack, making it break from the inside. Lodge never was so important and never before had to play such big role in the pack existence. I realised that a week ago, that defined by you 'progress' gives us 'progressing' dangerous challenges. The first challenge for us is to realise that we, psychics, aren't here only to help with mood and happiness but to defend every eons mind. At South, under the ruined city, there is appearance, very strong in psychic. Visible and hidden at the same time, I am confident you felt its appearance too. Since few days this appearance focuses its strength on us, like some dark eye it kept looking at the Middle. Surprising is this that something stronger than this protects the pack but it's even darker than the Eye from Ruined City. Keep an eye on Zar, you mentioned the bush on his open field. Learn these secrets, you are powerful espeon Cera, theses secret will be more safe with you then with Zar."

In a sudden blink of the light, I was back, looking at the flareon and two vaporeons carefully placing coal.

Flareon seemed to notice that was something wrong with me stopping giving instructions to the vaporeons and gave me a long, meaning look.

When my legs shook and I staggered a little he asked.

"Hey! Green almost-grassy-espeon, are you okay? Maybe you need some water? Hey Ocen! Spilt some water on him, he is not doing too well."

Before one of the vaporeons did anything I felt terrible weakness inside, and I needed to lie down.

"Wow," I said before my legs collapsed under me. "Oh fuck, again."

I didn't manage to say anything more before the darkness consumed me and I stopped seeing anything and all my body felt numb.


	17. Chapter 17 'Not so complicated'

Chapter 17 "Not so complicated'

Before I opened my eyes, I heard a terrible noise of many voices singing like a choir straight in my ear. When my eyes finally opened and the fog that covered my view faded away I could see that my ears didn't fool me. I was surrounded by many dark appearances blinking from time to time in a yellow light, despite one who kept blinking in blue and whose yellow eyes looked a bit friendlier than all other pairs of bloody red.

"Serge? What the fuck?" I asked trying to get conscious.

'We goin' far, -hic-' far. And there is no one may stop -hic-now! And if you think that -hic-is about to the end let's -hic- agan! So -hic- here to the rise -hic- sun my -hic- friend! And if you think that -hic- has no sense let me -hic- it once again!" roared Serge's bleary voice near my ear.

"Why... what's happening?" I managed to ask my friend, it wasn't the most affectionate thing to do. My head still felt ripped apart and the thoughts flew through it without any control. Besides the chaos in my head, there was another chaos around. It was night, that what I could be sure about. But every direction I would look I saw blurry sparks of lights, flames, whole rainbow of colours of every possible eeveelution. Only the closest eons were mostly black blinking in their own light.

"We started," answered Serge, happily.

"Started what?" I questioned again, trying to fight off the confusion.

"The start," umbreon answered, a moment before something passing by momentary caught his attention, when he mumbled. "Hmm, sleek fur, nice -hic-..."

"Serge, the start of what?!" I snapped him out of his distraction.

"Beginning of the mating season, what did you think? Good that you are finally -hic-wake, for a moment I thought that I won't have anyone to have fun with! Obviously, without the last part of the event, let's not get into nature's way now or ever."

"Oh, it's today?" I asked, still not being fully awake.

"Yeah, for a moment I thought that you would sleep through the whole event, but here you are!"

"But how'd I even get here?" I asked.

"Well, I and a few other umbreons wacked to the and even beyond the edges of intelligence decided that carrying an unconscious or dead leafeon to -hic- can be an awesome idea. I need to agree, you are light, but back then I saw three leafeons instead of one so you need to understand that it wasn't the easiest task to drag you here."

"So we are...?"

"In the middle of the middle in the Middle!" exhaled Serge and stumbled against something, almost falling down on his face but somehow managing to deceive gravity and stay on his paws. Now I could notice that we really were in the middle of the Middle. From every direction, we were surrounded by a group similar to 'mine' of a dozen of eons talking loudly and bitty, though the group of umbreons seemed much less conscious than any other groups around.

"What part of the beginning is it?" I asked, as I was sure that it was already long past the real beginning.

"Late," hiccoughed Serge and smiled with his sight unclear. In the same moment another umbreon, a female, vomited on her own paws and fell to the side, just to start snoring loudly.

"And Rac is gone," commented Serge laughing and poked unconscious umbreon. "There's just seven of us left!"

"But there is only you, me and two of your friends here," I noticed and for the condition of two other Serge's companions, I was sure that come sunrise, there would be only me and Serge, or just me.

"That mages eight, -hic-," said Serge leaning on me to keep himself on his paws, he was heavy due to his thick umbreons bones.

"You know that..."

"Shhh, Sar, I cultulaleted thet," the blue umbreon interrupted me. It was harder and harder to understand him with every word spoken."Led's go for wak."

So we walked as I tried to keep balance for both of us. Serge completely wasn't even trying to pretend being sober. He gave me all his weight to carry, along the way he almost went into a fight with some randomly passing flareon and blew off steam on the innocent tree and actually threw the dark sphere of energy at some bush that reminded him about his mentor from youngling ages completely forgetting that this old umbreon was already dead since for a long while.

It was helpful that we were in the middle of the Middle, close to Serge's den, so most of the eeveelutions here knew him or at least had seen him before. Also, his being drunk wasn't something usual, generally seeing someone drunk was such a rare sight that it wasn't just some random umbreon, but someone with a power base and it would be better to avoid crossing their way.

Rather most of the eeveelutions knew what alcohol is, or at least the effect of consuming it, but not everyone had access to it. Usually, we only knew someone who knew someone who could arrange some of this rare liquid. The rarity of alcohol lied in an unclear source of it, it wasn't something you would find in the forest, but it was something you could create. The hardness of creating alcohol was that no one really knew how to do it and every alcohol that was created was an effect of random actions and attempts to discover this mystery. Some eeveelutions kept saying that they already discovered this secret, but their methods rarely were working, sometimes they were but sometimes they were not. It depended if you were lucky or not but when you had enough alcohol to get truly drunk, it meant that you are great enough to help your luck or you are one of the best umbreon in the pack and belong to the group no one should mess with.

To make one huge group exist it needed to be split into many smaller groups and the pack had many smaller on bigger groups inside. The biggest were regions but there were smaller, more complex and closed groups. Not all of them meant something but some had an important role. Through all of them were made to unite enthusiasts of the same kind and were completely open like hunter's groups that were just groups of eeveelutions that loved hunting and be part of it required only to be motivated to go for hunting or group of swimming lover but then there were these more closed groups. Some of them required specific skills, evolution or character to join. By some called Shadewalkers was the group of umbreons that required a high level of potential, the potential was measured by the line umbreon was coming from. I didn't know which mixes could be better or worse with creating future umbreon's potential but this group existed quite long and their prognosis about which umbreon can become strong and which can't seem to be correct.

These groups weren't anything so binding like being a leader or elder, and the reason why some of them were more or less closed was lead by possibilities of doing things together. Like, leafeon couldn't be a part of the group that required the use of psychic or dark-types abilities. Best he may do would be sitting and looking at how others have fun.

But still, the most fun part of these smaller group were conspiracy theories that were appearing in the less meaning about the more meaning groups. Besides they were all abstraction then still it was interesting to listen to them, sometimes.

We manage to get inside Serge's den and thanks to his uncontrollable flashes of blue light I could carry him to his own sleeping place. His sleeping place wasn't the same as mine, twigs and leaves were only a smart part of it. First was a layer of soft sand from the lagoon, next were dried leaves of hazelwood still giving strong aroma, the last part of the bed was ghost type corpses. But save some hard bones or skulls, ghost types weren't organic, but some of them had soft material that could be used to lie on thanks to its softness and great possibilities to keep warm was a great material to build a den. Though it wasn't easy to get some of it that's why even my blue-ringed friend, even being a probably great fighter against ghost types, managed to gather only three small and torn pieces of that. Still, it was enough for every eon besides Sogot to sleep on.

There was a trend for personalisation of dens to make them fit with user appearance and type. Trophies, size and random rarest items had to show eon position and quality of life but besides all originality, everyone tried to achieve, the same eeveelution shared the similar 'style'. Like for umbreons typical was keeping their trophies from hunting but only these they were proud of. It was rare that single umbreon would keep more than one or two souvenirs of this kind, unless it could find some use like sleep. With time everything is rotting and needs to be thrown away. Espeons prefered glowing stones more than 'stinky pieces of meat'. Personally, I thought that it could be connected to the fact they have a small gem on their forehead. Vaporens dens usually smell fishy for an unknown by me reasons, sylveons used to hang a dozen useless things that kept swinging in the wind and flareon...

Serge's powerful burp pierced the air like the mighty roar distracting me from my thought and echoing in the den.

"You awake?" he only asked. For the moment I worried that he vomited in his den.

"Yes."

"I need outside, support," he acknowledged immediately standing up making shakily steps. I helped him keep his balance and we didn't manage to get far from the den when umbreon turned to the bush and vomited, lying flat on his stomach in the process.

For a long while, he was completely incommunicable. He didn't react at my voice or tap in the back. He was awake and his eyes were open but he seemed to not see at all and usually yellow shine he had in his eyes was gone now. Then he started mumbling something under his breath and finally lifted himself to the sitting position splitting awful taste that left in his mouth.

"Are you dead?" I asked, but he didn't answer me and I kept waiting.

The sky was lit up by the morning sun that slowly started crawling out from beyond of the horizon. The sunrise was about to be short as heavy clouds were coming and were about to cover the east soon. But it was more than enough to snap out Serge. He hated morning sun, and noon sun, and generally the sun.

"Is my head trying to explode?" asked rhetorically dark type, talking to the air before him.

"Just drink some water and go to sleep," I said, gaining his attention.

"Zar? What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, it was you who dragged me unconscious in the night," I answered.

"I was dragging you? I don't want to limit you but you should drink less if you can pass so fast," said Serge and his voice sounded tired.

"Don't you remember anything? You shouldn't take things to drink from a few different places, mixed, it hit you hard," I countered realising that his mind wasn't working clear just yet, so I should avoid getting into discussions.

"Yyy, yyy?" was all the sound umbreon exhaled and kept looking at me with foggy eyes.

"Go drink water and sleep!" I repeated waving a paw into his den direction. His tiredness of night efforts was quickly returning to him.

"Yyy," agreed on umbreon and walked slowly to his den. I waited until he disappeared into the darkness of his entrance before I decided that he would be fine, eventually fall asleep in the middle of his den. I doubted that I would see him in the few next days. Serge usually didn't need to throw up no matter what he drank and if he needed now that meant yesterday was legendary. It was even sad I couldn't take part in it, instead of lying, glueing my mind together after Cera's and I connected for the moment. It seemed that it was far beyond my psychic possibilities. Assuming that not-psychic type could have any psychic possibilities in this kind of situation, maybe my mind was just sucked into this, chewed and spit out unable to do anything else then take time to regenerate. Though it was interesting, could my healing abilities be useful in healing mind issues? Like, if it stopped work then something broke and need to be regenerate? Something I am good at, I guess.

I should find Cera and tell her about an effect of our minds connected, it actually hurt and was a far uncomfortable sensation. Out of my control, it was an awful moment when I couldn't even decide what I am talking, doing or thinking. Maybe this information would be important.

Without thinking more I walked to the Cera's den hoping she would be there, it wasn't far from Serge's den. A moment later I stood before the wide entrance blocked by a pink transparent energy that was reminding me about floating water. She wasn't home.

Through the psychic barriers were appearing and disappearing depending if Cera actually was thinking to keep them up or was busy with something different or just forgot about them. It could mean that she just left or was sleeping. Eventually, she didn't want to be interrupted and that was what I eventually going to do, to interrupt. I could try to shout to check if she was there but even if she would it would be still interruption she wanted to avoid and for sure she would go deep enough into the den so the shout wouldn't reach her.

What did I suppose to do now? The plan was to find Cera and that was what I expected to do now yet she wasn't here and I wasn't sure with what I should busy myself now. I had nothing to do, like, nothing completely nothing. I had a lot of sleep lately so there was no chance that I would sleep now, I hadn't any place to take care of like I once had, it wasn't a good time for training either. It seemed that this, next and every next day I had completely free. It was great to be free but standing here now before the closed entry with completely no perspectives for future I felt somehow empty and sad. Was it another sight of getting older? That having the time I always wanted to have to do all these things I normally could, I hadn't anything to do because all the occupations that waited for this opportunity suddenly fly away leaving me here alone. Or it was always like that, just now I noticed that? Destiny was there, in the wide world but not here in the pack.

Maybe he didn't say that he needed to wait for there because he had something to do or because he didn't like the landscape here but because there was no future for me here, that Destiny doesn't exist without me so he doesn't exist now when I sat here doing nothing. The problem was that even going away from the pack the only future I could imagine was going back to the pack again where I had nothing to do. That was a never-ending circle because what I supposed to do differently than going back? It wasn't that there was anything worth going to. the pack was where I had everything, friends and space to live, I wasn't willing to replace any of them.

I stood up and decided to go to the lagoon, maybe there I would find something more interesting than standing here.

I didn't see anyone along the way, as if in one night all tenants moved somewhere far away leaving everything behind without a second thought. Empty clearing looked somehow dead and abandon, depressing. The trees and bushes still had empty dark-brown and grey branches deprived of leaves. The only greenery was few pine trees cover by the whole year in the needles but it was cold green, unfriendly, fitting the grim environment of bald trees, the scenery of dead nature that someday gonna be awaken.

Lying down next to the fallen tree, I pin my eyes to the flowing blue water. The river was still caring many ice floes in every imaginable shape and size. They were rubbing and hitting each other creating pleasantly trembling sound, being interesting to watch. The river already was higher than usual, soon the spot near the fallen tree would turn into the direct beach, distanced observation and calm spot. This place was higher than the rest of the river lagoon, the sand was white and soft. The only reason why it was always free was the fact it was close to the tree line so there were a lot of dried cones hidden in the sand, successfully keeping away everyone who didn't know how to avoid these painful little traps. Obviously, for a leafeon like me, it was nothing, Serge and Cera with time learned how to find cones in the sand without hurting their paws. Cones as a danger in the sand may sound funny until you step on one, only then you can understand how important is to avoid them and how hard is to take another step knowing that they could be anywhere, hidden under the sand. Just like the shit under the snow, you know it's there, somewhere, hidden to the moment till it would be too late.

I don't remember if anyone had ever tried to take our spot near the river, or the cones were enough or nobody cared about this fallen tree and nice view. Or we were seen as one of the smaller groups, whose place was here, so nobody even tried to come here. A leafeon, umbreon and espeon, weird group, one that's unusual and simply not prepared to live every season, second helpful but a bit unstable and third far above anyone league. Though to this group, I should also add the glaceon Liss, before evolution she was with as much she could, just now it was different. Liss never was very original and the one and only, however, she could be very direct and loving, so I considered her as a friend. Obviously, evolution changed the character a bit, like every glaceon she grew in pride and was aware of how easily she could fire the feeling of lust in others. In my opinion, these ice-types could be very affectionate and willingly using that, but she managed to stay normal for her friends.

"Zar, less thinking about butts," I mumbled to myself realising where my thoughts went, again. I had my mind connected to Cera, I should at least act that these thoughts are random and appear out of nowhere (because they are), not that this was common to me, to think this way every time my thoughts contain the opposite sex.

I often found it amusing thinking about differences between each type of eeveelutions, besides we weren't all so different. I just liked to bold the differences making them more incisive and at the same making the world more colourful and interesting. If everything would be equal and unified, everything would be boring and at the same time, chaotic. As if every type would be the same and equal, luck would be the only thing that would be ruling everyone's life. Every confrontation would have the same chances to lose and win, every aspect of life would depend on luck. No one would be strong, no one would be weak, but if there are no weak fellows then everyone would be weak. The world deprived of colours and flood by a chaos of hundreds of individuals depending on luck. Every possible hierarchy would fall down, when everyone would become equal. The competition was important, maybe it was even the sense of life.

But didn't I already define the meaning of life? That it's the goal we find and try to achieve by ourselves? But this definition lacked some information. After all, not everyone can be so intelligent as to find the goal worth living and achieving. Not every goal had to have a future and not all goal should be achieved. Through bad goals are able to create a goal of stopping someone from achieving it. Competition.

My definition of life needed to change, it wasn't just finding a goal to live, but to find a competitive goal. Something that gives us enemies or a different form of difficulty. Something able to develop new abilities and experiences in ourselves. An activity that changes our day into adventure, that pumps adrenaline in our veins, that change the days we live, make us raise the voice and make us stand and fight. That's what life should be, the try and test, challenge and effort, the rise and fall so we learn more, improve, dominate and overcome whatever stood against us. Until we can and are able too.

Maybe it was the point of my evolution? To overcome all adversity of fate and make the world natural, as it should be, free from equality and full of differences, because that was how nature should be, and when I achieve this state of mind then share it with others? After all, all other types were exposed to all kinds of corruptions. Like, I didn't need to be a leafeon to notice the way espeons were dealing with umbreons or vaporeons with flareons or any other strict type. It was a competition I wanted to exist but at the same time, Serge and Cera knew and tolerated each other. If it wasn't for me they would be great rivals today, one as an inspiring dark-type, the second one as a skilled psychic. But they knew each other by me, and besides all the differences, they were friends. Even if they weren't showing it too often, I do not believe they could compete with each other the same way they would without knowing each other. They were friends, and besides all the differences, they would support each other in time of need. It was something I liked to feel, being someone between everyone, connecting types that never supposed to be connected, even if just as friends. It was a nature, keeping a difference, not allowing equality and unification to be a dominating force, but still connect kinds so different, even if it were just friends of mine, able to unite even just in order to help me. Umbreon, leafeon, espeon and glaceon, each one opposition of another, yet everyone in more or less stable group, but still group. The team I needed to achieve my destiny, I needed all five, glaceon, umbreon, espeon and absol to fully follow Destiny, to gain competitive goal that teaches me new abilities and give new experience, to achieve the real life I needed to go into the wilderness and drag others with me. It was my idea of the future depending on what I knew now. That everyone waits for it even not knowing this, yet I had doubts if I should or if I was right. After all, I was just another eeveelution put in its own way of seeing the world. Maybe everyone sees some kind of future, everyone different and, just like me, kept it for themselves scared of others opinion, wondering of how much of it is created by our type or our will.

I thought that everyone was fully understanding the meaning of type, maybe not all the time but from time to time. That Serge thought about all decision made just by his typing or Cera feeling kind of weird thinking that her mind could be more powerful than mine or Serge's. I think that everyone had a moment with a thought about differences, maybe it wasn't so great with practice but at least with thought. I really wished that someone would show me his point of view on whatever. Colour of the leaf, a scent of the dandelion clock, whatever, just a moment when I could listen to someone and be silent. It never was possible, friends always were talking about something you wanted to hear, strangers didn't want to go into deeper talk leaving you always with an unsure theme.

My paws twitched nervously from the lack of movement, and I stretched them forward, making them twitch for few times before peacefully lying at the flank. There was a soft, little cold wind blowing balanced by the warming, shining sun. I distend for one more time before I rolled back on my stomach. The day was fast passing and it seemed that it would be another day where nothing happened.

When it gets dark I would pay a visit to Cera hoping that I find her at her den, not so tired and able to talk about mind connection and then maybe spending the night at Serge's den. Through it would be much better to spend the night with Cera, I didn't want to become intrusive or irritating by using too much of her time. After all, she always had a character not so willing to share the place for sleep or spending too much time in a company, reasons we acceptable. Serge's den wasn't bad too, it was so dark it was great to sleep in, umbreons also were great hosts as they never were waking up early making it possible to sleep too late afternoon. In being someone's guess I hated seeing that in the morning everyone already awoke, beside me.

Spending the night with Cera still would be much better, but if it needed to wait then it needed to wait, every attempt to speed things up could end up badly. I didn't think only about reproduction, about burrowing my own meat in something warm, but about general feeling. Every first female could fulfil the simples desire but that wasn't the main point. I wanted to be part of something better, of magnificent support only one relationship could give.

Yet another, seemingly turgid thought, ended up around the butt. Was I always like that and never noticed or just now? Why was I even asking myself? If I would know the answer I wouldn't need to ask! Did everyone think in the form of 'internal-self-conversation'? Building thoughts into unspoken sentences that somehow were able to distract us so much to make us stop seeing, hearing or moving. Though I once heard that knowing how to ask is the beginning to finding every answer. But I was thinking this way before I heard this sentence. So my mind already knew that asking questions is important. That was kind of funny when your mind knows something you realise much later.

Then, is this what having psychic abilities felt like? Would it be just more voices in my head than my own or would it be more like imagine? After all, some psychics are able to see the memories and even future, that's maybe is more of the picture then voice. Maybe it was something like my nature sense. Silent whispers that are not words, coming from somewhere between leaves, branches, roots. Whispers that doesn't make any sense or sound until I lean down and listen to it. Not that I could understand them fully, honesty, I could understand very little of what the whispers had to say. I knew just a few 'keys' I always tried to catch whenever I had to use this ability. Maybe psychic was the same? In thousands of surrounding things, you could pick up just a small part of the whole thing. Just like in life.

The sun managed to shine some light through the hole in the clouds then disappearing again. The rays were warming but too short to affect my leaves. Just as when I was on a sun diet I didn't want to eat real food, now I couldn't imagine how some light could be enough to silent raging empty stomach. Just a few more days and fresh meat would be available again, but till then I had just bald old bones to chew, good that snow ended. Hunting returned to daily again, just to find all the prey that rotated when the pack had a long snowy break from leaving to hunt as glaceons weren't hunting for the pack. There was not enough of them to feed the pack anyway, also all these preys needed some time to reproduce and grow in number. Then they are always braver and are easier to catch, that works for the pack, after snow season everyone wants to catch something fresh to eat.

A splash of water turned my attention toward the river where, for the second, I could see a lightly-blue fishy tail between the flowing ice. I spotted the tail for the few more times before recognising its owner, a vaporeon. In my opinion, it was still too cold for bathing, and ice floe could make swimming harder. Guess there was no way to keep water-type away from water. Through this one vaporeon swimming looked rather dramatic rather than an act of enjoyment. Thanks to the ability to breath underwater vaporeons couldn't sink, yet this one looked as if in the middle of the desperate fight to keep himself above the water.

Maybe he was newly evolved and didn't know that yet? Besides he was much too big in length to be new. Vaporeons always seemed to be longer, every other eeveelution had the end at the point where the tail was staring while this water-type tail was so massive that they seemed to be twice as long as usual eeveelution. Some were even saying that by evolving vaporeon's body was changing into the liquid, it was hard to believe but some of them really could kind of melt into the water for a moment. I was wondering what would happen if other liquid would mix with them while using this ability. Would they absorb it or would it happen something bad? What if two vaporeons would mix together? Was it even possible or it was how it looked but they weren't really changing into the water?

Seeing that the sinking vaporeon made it to the bank and lied motionlessly I decided to check on him, he shouldn't be in real danger, after all, it was just water. The truth that so cold water could be extremely dangerous for every other type and river flow, exhausting.

The vaporeon didn't notice me coming or sitting next to him. Just as I saw from the distance, he was much too big for a newbie, muscles on the tail were already fully developed just like protective fat, scales already lost its fresh-bright colour being as blue as they should.

He kept lying and I wasn't even trying to lift him, compared to this, Sonya could be called feather-weight. Besides she was heavy too.

Something in this face looked familiar, maybe I knew him already?

"Struga?" I called barely reminding the name. The vaporeon slightly jerked before lifting himself up and shaking its head. In the meantime, I noticed he had blunt claws and slight damage in his scale cover. "Were you fighting something in that water?"

"Wha... what?" he snapped finally noticing me. "No... no. Hi, I didn't expect to see you here, it was a while, Zar was it?"

"Yeah, I was away for a while, long while. Damn, you changed, now it's visible that you are from Elder line. Maybe you won't make competition to Sogot but to others Elders, for sure."

"Thanks, you look different too, though I guess that growing physically stronger isn't a leafeons thing," answered Struga.

Really? And I thought I made improvement since I left.

"So, what were you doing in this river?" I asked.

"Ah, I am building my own den, you know, as the season started. I want to collect some nice pebbles from the bottom of the river," said Struga.

"Oh, so you are building a new place? Did things with Navia worked out?" I asked but slight grimace on his face immediately told me I didn't guess.

"No, not really," he answered.

"What I missed?" I asked.

"No, not really," he said again.

"She turned you down?" I pressured.

"No...,"

"So what's it all about?"

"She has someone," vaporeon finally said, besides it was well known to my piece of information I kept it for myself and acted being surprised.

"Really? Who?"

"Also vaporeon, her name is Oda..."

"Her?" I cut him, misunderstanding.

"Uhm, yeah, Navia appeared to be bisexual," Sturga answered lowering his voice.

"I dunno what does it mean," I said.

"Well, yeah, you weren't around for a while. Sogot created kind of 'meetings' where you can learn new ways of community improvement, also new words like bisexuality. That means that someone like both males and females in the same strong way," Stuga explained.

"Hmm, if you add two things you like it just about to get better, didn't you thought about the joining them? Though for the first time I saw Navia and Oda, I thought Oda is a male," I said and I wondered if we really thought about the same eon, after all, I never saw her from the distance I could see any features, face.

"It's typical, Oda is just very tall female. I heard that before hatched, her egg was so big it had another tiny egg inside. She came here from a different part of the pack hoping to find a mate. They tried relation Sogot was talking about but from my observations, they are not really into it."

"So, you just wait until this unusual situation ends?" I asked.

"After all, they don't have future. They can't truly mate and they are not stupid to be blind to that. Navia is important for her line and Oda is sure that it will be her womb that will give birth to the future leader's line. With that set of genes, it's quite probably but no one really wants to take her. She kind of insane, guess that eons families from the edges of the pack have a different morality but she cares only about finding someone with, what she calls 'Great set of genes' for mating, besides being actually very floozie, she is quite careful satisfying her hunger on randomly met, lured by produced scent..."

"Okay, she is a whore. You don't need to go into details," I said deciding that I wasn't really interested in whenever it was going to, things. After all, I was more interested in Cera than Navia, not even mentioning oversized vaporeon with, it seemed, never-ending heat. "I already have problems with one oversized eon, flareon who would like to break my bones, I don't need to bother with a second larger than average eon."

"Sorry, I just can't resist from talking if I get into some theme that irritates me. The girl I wanted to hit got hit by another girl, how high are the chances that something like that happens? I need to be truly unlucky," snorted Struga. "That's why I build a new den, I got the idea that if Navia decides that she needs a future..."

"Then you offer her 'future'? Den? It's some idea but I think you are doing it all wrong. If you really want to be with her, for something more than a few moments, you should try to push this realisation only a little. Some talk between you to from time to time, gently learning each other and then, seeing reactions of the second side, deciding on something like building a den."

"Then what am I supposed to do? I need to give her something to be noticed, to be better than anyone different. You are in a different situation, your espeon mate is obsessed with you. It didn't even pass a day since you disappeared and she almost put the pack upside down in order to find you. You dit her interests, you know each other since being born and share almost everything. I heard that she was even psychically using your leaves so maybe the only mind is what you don't actually share. I don't have a situation like that, I needed to start from zero."

Yes, he needed to start from zero but I thought that this vaporeon couldn't understand that everything was starting from point zero. Also, actually I had my mind connected with Cera so I could say we share really a lot but I wasn't noticing it usually.

"Exactly!" I happily exclaimed. "You just needed to start from the point everyone has to start. Just on more maturity level with knowing where you want it to go. After all, you know what you want right? Something more than just following tempting Oda scent?"


	18. CH18 Sweet Juice

Ch 18 "Sweet Juice"

* * *

We quickly used to call it Curse, but did we ever learn what it really is? Actually, an abomination like this isn't anything new, and they had been part of nature for what seems like forever. Just like another kind of force we can find in our surrounding. By some it is considered the touch of 'the gods' or 'legendaries'.

However, the theme of corruption had lately became a more popular part of our companionship discussion. With all necessary respect to Dvin the Rotten, I say the danger has been unnecessary blown up. I can understand that the green society of our lovely pack could be worried about something that they are not experienced to deal with, after all, these are espeons, not leafeons, who practise deep analysis of world in terms unseen by eye.

Called by you, the Curse Crisis is just a fluctuation in the safe and normal area. Whatever method you used to find this out, your judgments are oversensitive and in our permissible errors limits.

I am against increased actions against the energy known as Curse and I am against introducing special treatment for all leafeons. This group has always shown the highest durability for environment changes, so I do not believe in any special treatment for a 'Curse Crisis' they can't even present.

Thank you.

-Young Adept Espeon Vion

-Thirteen Pack Grant Meeting/Voting for Curse Crisis

-Spoken History of the Pack on psych-creations oracle.

* * *

Even with my huge amount of patience, I couldn't force myself to listen to Struga for more than a short amount of time about his 'plan' and 'beliefs' of how knowing someone's personality can predict its future movement.

Yes, it was possible, but for an espeon, not a leafeon or vaporeon. It was like a flareon talking about swimming or an umbreon giving tips on how to improve a relationship. It just was never more than empty opinions and could never become more than words in the wind, correct from some points of view, but wrong in general. The most unwanted kind of statement: 'I don't know the theme, but I need to say my opinion' kind of talk. It was as irritating as other eeveelutions trying to give me tips on how to deal with plants, or warning about staying in the sun too long. Some eon seemed to just have in-blood habits to 'guide' others, but not to first learn how. I wondered what answer I would get if I warned a flareon to watch his fire because it's hot or some glaceon to stop sitting on the cold snow or ice. But as I once heard, there are only a few idiots in this world, and they are just perfectly placed so you always have to deal with them.

So I quit the talk and walked my way back to the Middle. Stuga may not speak to me again for leaving him with the problem of choosing the darkness of stones from the river, because he heard that jolteons like a little brown colour, and he didn't know which are darker and which are browner.

But I, because I am a leafeon and had to be the master on all things flower, had to be some alpha and omega of colours. There was no sense in explaining to him that grass-type don't see colours better than other types, or that they don't even need eyes to know the colour of the plant and that female thing is to see colours better while males were better at watching moving objects. By the way, who even uses the name of colours like burgundy? Or ebony? What does it even looks like? Have I ever even seen colours or are they out of the male's range of colour?

Who even needs these colours? Red, green and blue, and everything could be described with details. Three simple colours and were everywhere.

I was going back to my den, with few stones from the river Struga gave me as they weren't 'brown enough'. I had no idea what I was about to do with them, but small oblong stones were always useful. Not only as decoration but also as a gift in order to get a favour.

 _Ekhm, ekhm, Hello..._

I dropped two black stones from my jaws as the female voice filled my mind, completely disturbing my thought and causing a little headache, psychically pressuring on my mind.

"What the fuck?!" I asked, shaking my head.

 _Oh, calm down. I'm just testing, first steps could be a little painful but..._

"Painful can be my paws in your ass! Who and what is fucking with my head?!" I asked. I was actually lucky that I wasn't in the Middle yet. Talking with myself could look weird.

 _Uhm... it's just me. Cera. I can sound a bit different because you hear me through our mental connection... so you hear my internal voice... instead of the usual one._

"Ehm, sorry," I said after a moment of hesitation, feeling warm grow over my face.

 _No, it's okay. I expected a much worse reaction. It's good reacting like that towards mind intruders. Anger is a very hard emotion to fight off. It wouldn't be an easy task to take control of your mind if you are angry._

"What?" I asked, not sure what it meant. It couldn't be the point of Cera's sudden call.

 _Yeah, it wasn't. I just, kind of heard that you were looking for me. So I was looking for you too, but this new connection seems to block finding you by psychic means. Through from a psychic point of view, this connection looks interesting... I was talking about something different, wasn't I?_

"Yeah."

 _You can just think about the answer. I do not hear it anyway. I don't know where you are, but I am heading to my place. We can meet there if you want, I can understand if you are busy, but can you be there? At least in the morning?_

"I am not sure if I have ever been busy enough to not meet you, but sure, I can be there shortly~," I sing-sang under my breath feeling how my head slowly preparing to explode from the psychic pressure. "Please, stop this connection now, it hurts!"

The pressure disappeared even faster it appeared, my thoughts again could flow freely through my mind and I could focus. I knew that Cera didn't want to hurt me, but having her in my brain was too much to handle.

I picked up the lost stones and hurried to the Middle with a new motivation for an upcoming meeting. It wasn't a long way to Cera's den, yet the weather was so bad that this short walk turned into a difficult expedition. Strong wind from the north not only made it harder to walk, but its cold air wiped away every heat, pushing the coldness through my fur, flesh and bones. The wind was carrying small drops of water of petrifying coldness and blinding dust.

There was no pink blob on the Cera's entrance so I could immediately get in. The rest from wind made me notice my shivers and the wave of warmth from how cold I was. The snow melted just a day ago, the weather could be tricky now, the sun shining its warm rays could make it seem like it was warm, however, all the cold air around was like ice... in the air appearance. A moment without the sun and everything was at the edge of freezing again.

Cera's den hadn't changed much since my last visit, the first room was still mostly round with water preventing step around the entrance. Farther were lying leaves of lime and birch to clean paws before going to the next room. Between leaves, I also noticed some stems of flowers of pink and red heathers, probably for their positive smell aspects. The layer probably stayed from the snow season, when it was quite easy to get all the dirt inside. Dry leaves condition and smell suggested it was still from the late stage of the sun season and the full stems had shown that most of the leaves had fallen down by themselves and were later taken from the ground, probably by psychic force, though it was already hard to guess considering they were used as paw cleaner more than once. Stamping and shuffling I cleaned my pads without missing stepping on the flowers of heathers to improve their smell, and they smelled really bad as I walked on the moist grounds around the river. My paws stayed brown, as it was its natural colourisation, but now seemed to be clean and smell in dry heather mixed with fresh grass. Then I moved further through the tunnel lied down with flat dark and grey stones slightly grown by soft moss. The whole tunnel was lit up by the deep lavender colour of the irregular stone the size of my head peeking off the wall. The next room was larger than the first one and had more ways to go. The ground was covered, now much thicker, a layer of something that looked like moss, yet it wasn't real moss as I didn't feel anything from it that I should from a plant. Cera once said to me that someone from the former generations of her line, also espeon, find a way to create something called: psych-creation. That was nothing different than changing psychic energy into mastery and the moss that was covering the floor of this and few more rooms was just psychic energy formed into moss-similar shape. She also said there is no psychical way to find out what was psych-creation and what is not. The moss was one of the first time when this espeon used this ability, but as Cera claimed, later he got better creating perfectly recreated object nobody would be able to tell apart from the original. Unfortunately, he lived a very long time ago. If he would know how many eons would want artificial moss inside their dens now he might find a way for long life to create his career. Currently, even Cera didn't know his name, not that I would expect her to know that, she was my age, so she couldn't meet this espeon, just heard a thing or two from her mother playing in these tunnels. Also, she wasn't playing for long as she evolved very fast and when she did she was forced to study her psychic abilities.

I couldn't recall myself how Cera looked like as an eevee, had I even met her before her evolution?

I chose one of the tunnels going to the main sleeping chambers of Cera's den. I didn't want to scream here trying to find her and it was the usual place she used to spend her time if she was a den. The tunnel was going down and turning left, then opening up showing larger room bathed in an intimate lavender and violet colour. This room was probably the most comfortable place in the Pack. Even Sogot hadn't access to such an advanced den. Cera's family, the Espeon's Sleeping Chamber were the greatest combination of psychic abilities and building knowledge. Starting from perfectly dig room with round walls and completely flat floor, going through glowing stones, light reflective surfaces or passive ventilation, ending on fully physically illusions and psych-creations. It wasn't just a place to sleep, it was a display of many psychic generations and their knowledge or abilities. Obviously, not all of the creations survived or were working correctly, for example, the illusion on the ceiling that controlled the light in the room broke and was now only shining in lavender, changing the colour of everything inside to the espeon's colour, or not shining at all.

Maybe if Cera would care enough to fix it, this room could look a bit different the lavender and violet. But Cera didn't give a shit about some colouristic illusions, she had to sleep here, not admire illusions on the ceiling.

I spotted Cera on the other side of the room, only thanks to her big blue eyes that shined like a star on the lavender background of this room and her fur, she was peacefully sitting observing me entering the room.

"Yes, I still do not care about the ceiling, but it requires something more than just repairing. An illusion is a cloud of psychic energy, if it doesn't work or work incorrectly it means that energy is flowing in an unpredicted way. I am way too weak to control the energy this illusion possess and too inexperienced to understand the technique it was created," said Cera, not moving from her spot. "But enough about useless psychic tricks, it's nice to finally see you, Zar. Come closer."

Unsure, I walked a few more steps.

"Okay, now you are in. How do you feel? Did the connection really hurt? What happened? Do you still feel the pain? Could you describe it?" Cera jumped to my checking my forehead with the paw and closely observing my eyes.

"I am okay, I think," I managed to say in the barrage of questions.

"Are you sure? I clearly can sense some disturbance in your astral entity or abomination of a second mind sphere, not to mention about esoterically shredded memory shades, but I guess it's just mind imperfectness. nothing to worry about, no one has perfect mindscape, some minor damages always appear.

"What?" I asked, I completely lost whatever Cera meant to say.

"Oh, don't worry about that. A few regenerating sessions should fix everything, we can start tomorrow," Cera continued behaving as if I really was very ill.

"Zar, not every illness needs to be painful. Illnesses at psychical way are painless, but that doesn't make them less dangerous!"

"Cera, what do you mean saying that I am 'ill'. Why the sudden change of mood? Is it because..." I asked.

"Ah, what a stupid thought, psychical control on my own body is the beginning of the beginnings of psychic, espeons could be dangerous if they would allow their period to control their emotions. The sudden change of emotion could trigger psychic action. But besides all the useless things in this room, there is few actually useful psychical trick. Like thoughts bubble, staying close to the entrance it is possible for some 'listening' espeon to catch some thought but a bit deeper only I, being here with you, can hear them."

"Don't you trust anyone?" I asked worriedly. I don't remember if we ever had to worry about being spied on.

"Not from today, but that's not the point, I am nervous because of the

Lodge. It's something different than some unstable region. I don't want anyone to know out talk," explained Cera.

"Is it something Vion said?" I asked, making Cera's eyes wide open.

"How do you know that!?" she almost screamed. "Wait here a moment!" She said and sped out of the room, I heard her running inside the den for a while before she returned panting slightly and the exit behind her covered behind here and hardened changing into the wall. There was not even the slightest sight there ever was an opening.

"Shouldn't you explain a few things?" I asked seriously. "First off, where did the entrance go?"

"Really? The entrance is the most important thing now? It's not like you want to just leave?" she asked, sitting next to me.

"Well, no, not at all, but it's not common for you to behave so nervously," I said. "It can't be because Vion said a few words about me."

"But it is, you just don't know Vion. He does not waste his time on friendly talk in the role of a caring uncle. If he mentions something, that means it's something important, and something troublesome. As long as I have been in the Lodge, I have never heard him say anything about anyone directly!"

"Maybe he just changed in his old age?" I suggested.

"He has been dead for like three hundred seasons! Vion is his own psych-creation, charged psychic energy he created to live longer than his eon body supposed to!"

"I didn't know espeons could do that," I said, being truly surprised. I thought that abilities like foreseeing future weren't possible and now I heard something so even weirder, so against nature.

"Because we can't, however, the world is ill, so every aspect is, psychic too. Psych-creations, every psych-creations are cursed abilities, everything is cursed. It's not common knowledge but the Lodge has known it for a long time. The Curse, evil, something from the different world that slowly but progressively changes our world into its reflection. This is in the psychic, water, ground, plants, even our own blood! And now some cursed old freak took interest into my own leafeon!" said Cera energetically, taking one deep breath to calm herself down, but stopping in the middle and again nervously added. "You, I mean Zar. I mean you as Zar, leafeon. Yeah, heh."

Cera started nervously pacing around with her ears low and her restless intensively blue eyes. She wasn't using psychic, but even without it, her eyes sometimes seemed to shine.

"Uhm, thanks," I shot shyly, stopping her in the middle of the pace. "That you care for me."

Cera, without saying anything and her ears still low, slowly walked to me and sat closely next to me, so closely our fur mixed with each other. She slowly but tightly wrapped her tail around me and gently lowered her head until it rested on my shoulder. Unsure how to answer on the sudden display of affection, I just sat there and steady. But only my posture was steady as everything inside me felt like exploding, in few moments I felt warmer than ever before and even more distracted. It felt like from all 'leaf' 'feon' or 'lea' sounds I could make only 'e' was available now.

Partly on its own, partly on purpose to avoid saying a word, my head also lowered touching with my check Cera's forehead. Her gem was cold, hard, unenjoyable to the touch, but her fur was perfectly soft and more delicate than any flower could be.

"Can you guess, what I never checked in your mind?" asked silently Cera. "When you let me read your mind, during your journey, you were thinking a lot, but there was no answer to your wonders and that was a thing I never was brave enough to check."

"Yes, I do. But you know it won't work. You are from a higher league, I don't mean by the respect in the pack, but because of abilities involving in everyday life."

"Shh, I know, but couldn't resist anyway. But you forgot that you are not the same leafeon you were while leaving. You survived away from the pack on your own. I know that you found this absol, but still, you did it on your own. Going through this absol would be a problem even for Sogot but you found the way. They are rare and extremely hard to put down, good you didn't need to fight her. So maybe our future won't work just in the pack, but anywhere else?"

"We actually fought," I said reminding Sonya's aggression when I asked her about the human in the reflection. I guessed it was the past she promised to defend but I, without a second thought, kept asking.

"No way, I don't know much about her species, but knowing how their life can be longer than ours, how much more time they have for learning and getting stronger. I can't imagine of anyone to stand against them alone," said Cera, and she lied down on her stomach before me.

"It was... generally unnormal. I never before had to fight for my life, yet this fight was perfect. I even used some ability I didn't know I could use!" I said, lying next to her too.

"What ability?" she asked frowning. Then I understood that all romantic mood flew away before it even started to escalate. "Oh, you liked that, hmm? We gonna return to it, but first we need to deal with important things," smirked Cera reading my 'flying' thoughts. "So, what ability?"

"It looked like the dark orb Serge can do, it flies in a straight line and can explode by hitting something. But mine didn't explode."

"You mean that you shot the same black orb umbreons used to do? Well, as an eevee you may learn this too and it wouldn't be anything new, but I never heard about vaporeons or espeons using this ability even if they knew it in pre-evolution form. Are you sure it was dark-type move?" Cera asked.

"I think, I think I can't be sure of anything that happened that night... or day. It was all so crazy and... and scary. I completely don't know how I could survive all of that. There were living, bald organs on the walls, limbs that momentary could change me into a wet blob, and... and I thought, a 'friend' that tried to kill me when I survived all... all of this saving her too," my voice broke as memories in my head kept growing in weight.

"Shh, silent now. Come, let's cuddle," Cera said, getting closer into the embrace. "You didn't change all that much, you just build yourself a safe wall that kept you going. Now it's okay. It's warm, it's nice to rest your head now, close your eyes. I promised to get you better and I am going to do keep my word," Cera's voice was calm and friendly, almost cosy, as if it there wasn't a smidge of worry mixed in her voice. But I listened, how I could not? Slowly I lied flat on the soft and comfortable ground of the Sleeping Chamber with Cera pressed to the whole length of my flank. "Now relax, I am going to help you with your problems how I only can." I heard a soft voice whispering in my mind as my eyes uncontrollably closed on itself and resisted to be open again.

 _Sleep, please._

* * *

The sky was full of white cracks on a black background, as if hundreds of thunderbolts were frozen in time. The ground was a flat, black field that slowly formed into the also dark grass, bushes and trees.

I stood up from the dreamland's ground, unhappy that this unwanted and repeating dream showed up again. It seemed that I had used all my happiness on meeting with Cera and the dream had to be less pleasant. Without any motivation, I dragged myself forward through the forest, passing perfectly known places and black coloured plants. Until, until I notice dark leaves enveloped in violet glow flying in the air.

I went quietly into flying leaves way. I didn't need to walk long before I saw someone I didn't expect to see here.

"Cera?" I asked the espeon, who stubbornly tried to fit leaves of white lilac to the Sorbus aria. The espeon jumped, in surprise, losing all the leaves she was holding.

"Zar, you scared me! I didn't know you had your own psychic appearance," said Cera, but her voice sounded more like the one I heard in my head a day before, also her appearance seemed to be different. She was a bit slimmer in the midsection, had softened face features with bigger eyes, her legs looked longer and hips more well-rounded than usual.

"You look a bit different," I said taking a notice.

"Yeah, it's the same thing as with the voice, psychically doesn't mean the same as physically. Hey, don't judge with that look, everyone wants to look better than they actually look! Here, appearance is just form of recognising each other. Also, it's your mind! Also you, normally you don't shine all in white," Cera said waving with her tail that too seemed to be longer than normal.

"Are you in my mind?" I asked, trying to understand changes in my dream.

"Not from today it seems~," Cera sing-song-ed, but quickly added in a more professional tone. "It generally depends on what you mean by being in your mind. Honestly, I am just touching it, as I would fit in your mind, psychic type requires much larger 'space' than non-psychic type mind can offer."

"Like what? If it's my mind and there is a whole forest in here, how are you supposed to not fit here?" I asked, really trying to understand this psychic stuff.

"Okay, starting from basics, size at a psychic level doesn't mean the same thing as at the real, let's call it 'world', thought going to psychic we don't change the world," started Cera, sitting down and cocking her head her head to left and right wondering at words choice. "Like, the size of the appearance here is kind of a choice for psychic, choosing to be taller than the trees or the size of leaf doesn't really matter. The important is the 'power' that stand behind the user. Many other espeon used to make their psychic appearances much bigger than natural size of espeon. I don't consider it necessary to be seen as 'great and powerful' in operations to help someone's mind," explained Cera, visibly having problems to find words that would make things easier to understand by me.

"Ok," I said. "So everyone can choose their appearance in this dreamland?"

"No, but psychic that has control under their abilities can. Other types sometimes don't even have their appearance at a psychic level. The fact that you have one means that you are not so easy to trick out," tried to explain Cera, but it seemed that it was hard to explain something she was skilful to someone who was completely obvious to it.

"Easy to trick?"

"Yes, you remember the vaporeon I forced to jump or roll during my presentation of skills a year after evolving? She hasn't a psychic appearance, her own perspective or opinion. Minds like these exist too, they're just so easy to control it's sometimes hard to leave one to without making any point of living for. You may not believe it, but minds like these, they just need to hear something to believe in it. They are not filled like here with 'something', but are completely empty. And well, you even have a different colour then you use to have, whole white, just like one side of your leaves. Are you sure you hadn't some powerful espeon in the line that could give you some psychic abilities? Maybe not real psychic abilities, but at least some attributes, like dealing with this kind of stuff a bit better than common grass-type would do?"

"I don't know, I didn't really ask about it, I know that my parents were flareons, but I know we weren't an only fire-types line so it's probable that there were more types in my line then fire," I said, and thought how much could I learned during my journey if I would be psychic. "Are you genealogist now too?"

"No, but before you get your specialisation in the Lodge, you learn a little of everything. Mine was mass control and analysis," praised Cera.

"Mass control? It sounds... disturbing," I noticed honestly. Cera smiled and slightly narrowed her eyes.

"You think of deceiving others minds? Changing the way how they think? What they say or do? What they think or who they are? It's not anything hard, newly evolved are able to invade someone's mind, but anything of what I mentioned, isn't my occupation. I would be able to control, let's assume, ten weak minded eon just for a few short moments before my mind would be fried," explained Cera, taking a moment for breath and think. "Okay, maybe not ten, but three at least. But only in theory, in practice, nobody would wait until I synchronise and kind of 'catch' a mind. Unless they would agree to it, that would be quite quick."

"Okay, I quit. No more psychic stuff. Too much information for one day," I acknowledged, feeling I already said that today. "What are you doing here?"

"Uh, you know that what I am doing here is more psychic stuff?"

"Then let's take a walk," I suggested.

"But, it's your mind," Cera noticed.

"Currently I see the forest, there is some issue with colours, but generally it feels really realistic in here,"

"Well, okay. I never before had a walk in someone's mind. It's always a new experience," Cera said and smiled. We walked side by side through the forest of my imagination, or my subconscious, I wasn't sure and didn't really care. This walk had to happen long, very long ago so the place it took didn't really matter. We passed a few trees and returned to the pathway I used to pace every time I landed here during my dream, but we didn't follow my trails continuing forward. I didn't even know what was ahead, but if we couldn't get lost, I didn't care.

"So, is it a reanimation of the forest around the Middle?" curiosity broke the silence, Cera probably noticing a few familiar spots.

"I guess it is, it looks like that, but it misses some details, like there is no pack, for example," I answered.

"Eon's dreams or mindscapes really are something bigger than a cave or small clearing."

"Every mind is kind of place?" I wondered.

"No, minds never are places. We all just evolved into the way we don't know what the void is, as it is always something to look at, so experiencing something beyond eyes abilities, our mind is playing a trick on us replacing things we can't see with imagines, the ones from memory one changed. Simplifying, there is no sense to waste time for full explanation. It's the area where you need to be a psychic to talk about it."

"I am not even gonna ask," I snorted.

"It's nice to see something new, now I wonder if every grass type has something similar. You know, because of some connection to the plants or ability communicate them, seeing them as something more than just environment it makes it possible for grass-types to get closer to psychic! Though there are more plants in the world then minds so maybe this kind of communication can overpass psychic. That no one before thought that-aaaa!"

Taking the espeon by surprise, I pressed my tongue to her cheek and licked her on her muzzle. Her eyes shot open and glowed in blue rapidly before Cera suddenly disappeared.

"Fuck, I forgot Cera gets easily distracted after being licked!" I shouted with anger as I accidentally broke her connection, losing the company and stopping the walk that had too much longer than that. I got the idea that the best way to stop her from talking about abilities, possibilities, chances and other complicated themes. I wasn't in the mood for this.

I sighed and dragged myself back to the place the dream used to end, to the tangle of thorns behind which I found only the darkness, until the morning.

* * *

I woke up thirsty, but I slept well, the soft ground here was really comfortable making the sleep the great experience. I was alone, Cera probably left early morning and knowing my habits in waking up, it could be quite long ago. I hoped she left an exit open for me.

Luckily she did, I could freely go and find myself something to drink, the river seemed like the obvious direction, but its water still was very cold. It would be better to find some puddle, the sun was already height warming the ground, trying to fight off the cold wind, still wheezing occasionally. It was the time of the year where it could be both a warm day and the return of the snow, all depending on what was stronger. The wind or the sun, and the wind could change at every moment.

Getting some sun on my leaves was pleasant, but the scar on my head jolted with a little pain, so small it could be ignored.

"Why doesn't it surprise me that a souvenir from the place in the eternal night doesn't like the sun," I mumbled to myself, heading into the forest's direction, looking for a puddle. I could remember that at the clearing I was once taking care of was a place where water used to gather.

Going there I noticed that the path I had made by pacing every day now grew into tall grass and bushes. The clearing by itself didn't change much. Some of the plants I used for support got weaker and smaller, others taking advantage grew larger, taking the place of the weaker ones. It looks like that after I left, the already low fruit-interest in the pack lowered and the fruits weren't collected before the snow, ending as rotten blobs under the bushes.

In the middle of a ground depression, I found my puddle. The water was clear and cold, yet not as cold as the water from the river would be. Splashing a little, I satisfy my thirst and, feeling unfresh, I used the opportunity I washed my head focusing on ears. Then I decided to go back to the Middle, passed crowded clearing in the centre, got on the narrow path that led to the Leader Den filled with a line of nervous petitioners that had something to do with Sogot. Before crossing the river, I turned left on the less popular path and walked mostly alone, only passing from time to time a single or pair of espeons. The path took me to the wide entrance of a spacious cave system in the sandstone. Here was where the Lodge had its place and where most of the espeons were spending their time, it was like a river for vaporeons or... or some other good place for some different eons. It was here where I decided to start my search for knowledge about Metro, about the 'Ruins', Sonya and the whispering fog. Or that was the plan, I couldn't just ask directly about those things. It wasn't common, also if Cera said that some Vion, extravagant espeon connect me with some evil force, that could be suspicious.

"Hello," I said cheerfully to the first met espeon in the entrance, her eyes were glowing showing she was currently using psychic, but I didn't see any flying object nearby.

"Yeah?" she answered with a bored voice, without pausing whatever she was now doing or giving me any more attention. Coming here I should brace myself for reactions like this one, that was typical espeon behaviour. Guess I just forgot about it and didn't prepare myself.

"I am looking for someone who is busied in gathering information, where I can find someone like that?" I asked, now not so happy as before.

"Try the history block," was the answer, but said in the tone that it could also mean to leave her alone, immediately.

"So, which way is it?" I asked. The answer was a short wave of the tail before espeon slowly walked away. I went into direction espeon showed me, through the tunnel to another bigger opening. Here I could see one older espeon surrounded be a dozen of poorly looking or just newly evolved psychic types. Above the group, in the violet bubbles like prisons flying were two blue marill probably caught in the nearest forest. The third one was standing before one of the younger espeon whose eyes and gem were glowing intensely.

"...by synchronising your psychic waves with another mind source you can expanse your self-consciousness to another mind environment. Controlling the power flow you can integrate with a connected mind. Now Peur, push it a little and say what it ate yesterday. Remember you have to push a specific-," the instructor didn't end as the marill head suddenly impounded as small blue body get ripped apart and the air was filled with a disgusting smell of burnt flesh.

Quickly, I walked to the next tunnel, leaving the class and angry instructor noises. I just hopped it wasn't something normal to see or I gonna be really afraid to any psychic doing anything with my head.

Moving deeper I started to see also different eons then the only espeon, everyone looked kind of lost, but it made more convinced that I was in the area where I could find some interesting to me, knowledge, that they needed to learn something to so they came here.

I kept wandering around, listening to random conversations, passing multiple classes (though none of them was as terrible as the one before) and heard a few lectures. Nothing interesting, it was all just common stuff, common answers to the common questions that common eons had to ask. Where to hunt to find something, how to build a den to fit more than four eeveelutions, how to cure coughing, is rhinorrhoea deadly illness?

I was in the middle of listening to differences of nesting in umbreon's and flareon's fur when out of the corner of my eye I noticed familiar old espeon passing surreptitiously next to the wall

"Vilastraaday," I recognised him.

* * *

Hello, sorry for the month break. I don't want you waiting so long but it somehow ended like that ;/


	19. CH19 'Destiny for Someone Else'

**C** **h** **a** **p** **t** **e** **r** **1** **9** **"** **D** **e** **s** **t** **i** **n** **y** **f** **o** **r** **s** **o** **m** **e** **o** **n** **e** **e** **l** **s** **e** **"**

The Pack. The group, the society, the family, the environment.

The umbreons, espeons and vaporeons. The glaceons and flareons, sylveons, jolteons and the eevees.

Once also leafeons.

In the interesting times, I live, in times when one type goes out of extinction. Yesterday was the day when the Pack lost one type, one society, one tradition and culture.

If a season ago someone would say me that something like that is possible, I wouldn't take it seriously. That was what we all did, we ignored the warning and here is the price. Lets at least keep them alive in our memory. Here I am saving the knowledge I possess about this close and yet so different eons.

Prelude. A leafeon may be hard to imagine for someone who has never seen one. Their size, shape and musculature were similar to espeon, however, just like psychic-type, their muscles never were a source of their strength. Their real strength wasn't possible to measure, you can judge the strength of a vaporeon by the muscles and experience, espeon by its performs, visible potential, and amount of psychic energy it controls, but leafeons, if they weren't using any ability, seemed completely harmless, weak and powerless. They didn't cumulate any energy in themselves, didn't store it, every strength came from outside, from the environment. What was the source? We're never gonna know, unless leafeons return to the Pack. But it was so strong to fight an enemy no one could fight, they could fight death, they could fight time.

Healing abilities are natural for them and made them very important in Pack life. Besides leafeons arcana as deep as espeons, they build the Pack in numbers it never achieved before thanks to these (for them) simplest abilities, without them, only half or even less of a single litter may survive till maturity and reproduce. Every saved pair could bring next ten, these ten another hundred and them, thousand.

-Ada the Wet Tail and her 'Sweet dream made of fear',

-Spoken history of the Pack on the blue psych-creations oracle.

* * *

The espeon passed a few corners and greeted another few groups of psychic types, completely oblivious to my appearance. Following the old espeon seemed to be easier than I thought it would be, but I was still doing my best to avoid being noticed. If there were plants, I tried to meld with them, looking at him only out of the corner of my eye. If there were no plants, I was flattering my ears and furl my tail to look less-leafeon, I also imagine the large tree crown covering my mind in its tight embrace. I wasn't sure if it would be helpful, but I heard that by this way non-psychic could 'close' its mind to psychic access or even completely disappear from a psychic sense. I even doubted that something so easy to do could really be helpful, but it didn't hurt to try.

Following the old espeon, I got to the area I didn't know and I wouldn't be able to return from. We still were in sandstone caves, but without roofs and trees and bushes freely growing on the ground, making it easy for me to hide. I just had to jump through narrow paths, from one bush to another. Here I didn't see any eons but espeons, through Psychic-types also weren't often to see, I tried to be invisible to everyone.

Vila finally stopped next to the flat sandstone wall and waited there a moment, so I waited, pretending to be a now over-growed not-so-yellow dandelion in the clomp of completely normal dandelions. Through I completely couldn't understand how others can mistake me with plants, it worked out and I saw how the, so far lit wall glowed in violet and changed into the entrance Vila used, and how the entrance changed back into the wall.

I wanted to check the weird wall, but I heard someone approaching.

A moment later I saw two female espeons loudly complaining about their mates. From what I heard, one was a vaporeon and the second one was a sylveon. Though I couldn't understand what they didn't like in their mates, from the description they seemed to be really cool guys, I was surprised hearing the list the male should do.

Like, why? These two weren't even pretty, or pretty enough to do more than it was considered as 'standard', however, they required 'romantic evenings', understanding to every their problem, doing for her every den duty and lighting her mood every time she wanted.

It looked like these females couldn't understand one simple thing. Why pair with someone if it didn't bring relief? A desire to mate can be strong, but there are limits, who would clean a den, hunt for dinner and be all positive just to get some strong five of ten, maybe for some six of ten, female? It rather sounded like the fastest way to become here 'very friend', because it was how it worked. Just as Serge said, a mate can't get everything, so they would stay for a longer.

Eh, I didn't really just follow a relationship tip that I heard from an umbreon? Wasn't I lately saying that umbreon just suck in relationships?

Or maybe they were looking over all the emotions thing and could see the certain point of it all? After all, it was hard to disagree with Serge that a female needs to miss you, at least a little, to love you. Because if you are not with her, and she doesn't miss you, then what is this relationship worth?

But wait! Did Cera miss me right now? Like: miss-miss? If she missed me, should I stop this feeling and spend time with her using that she misses me or just keep her missing me? Spending time with her make her miss me less than she would miss me if I would keep her missing me. Through it looked botch options are bad, if I was leaving her to miss me I was making her feel bad and I didn't want to her to feel bad, yet I also wanted to be loved and spending more time with her could make Cera used to my appearance and that could make me less important to her so she may not love me at all.

Maybe these two females were the effect of too much attention, so they were trying to find the way male could show something more than just being around. That they were over-admired, or gain more attention then they should feel need to gain attention.

Damn, females should have some self-regulating system that would inform males about a miss of interests. It would be much easier than calculating risk and moods, month time or eventually, events that happened this day, a day before or last season, generally everything that may disturb the mood of actual relation. Things that happen and doesn't work for you or things that she imagined you should do but didn't do.

I shook my head. I supposed to focus on the wall, not gossiping espeons that aren't even half as good as my espeon!

"My espeon?" I asked myself under breath. Did I really place as to her being mine and me being her?

Aaaah! Back to the wall! Stop these thoughts, now!

Waiting until the espeons walked out of my hearing range, I walked out of the bushes hiding and stood next to the wall. I silently hoped it would open by itself if I just stand next to it, but it seemed that was more complicated. I pat it with a paw, with no effect.

Illusion? It could be, but to do anything about illusions I would need an espeon or umbreon.

I tried to listen through the wall, pressing the right side of my head to the wall. Firstly, I couldn't hear anything, but after a moment, there was a hiss, first very quiet, but increasing and getting loud. I kept listening to the weird hiss until I saw dense grey smoke before my eyes. I jumped off the wall that wasn't any longer perfectly flat. In the place, I pressed my head was red glowing burn the size of my scar, the burn slowly sunk into the wall before the whole wall blinked rapidly in white and disappeared, showing the passage.

"That was unexpected, but okay," I mumbled to myself, silently going through the distorted illusion, entering the dark cave. The walls weren't made of sandstone any longer, but of black cold and solid rock. As the passage closed behind me the only light source was small glowing stones hidden in the roof, the same ones Cera had in her den. Besides glowing stones, I still needed a while to get my eyes applied to the dark, as much it was possible for a grass-type like me.

As I get used to the dark, I notice that the whole cave was dug in a similar style to how Cera's den was. the roof, walls and ground were round and smoothly connected, not leaving a place for smaller roughness. Cera's den was old, it might be one of the oldest still used dens, but it didn't stink so old, like this cave. The air was moist and frowsty, very unpleasant. I walked across the weakly lighten room just to find out the cave is much, much larger than I thought. Farther in the cave, the ceiling was so high the stones in its roof looked like stars and the end of the room was lost in the dark.

However the room wasn't empty, it was full of small... I would say stones, yet it didn't look exactly like stones. They were mostly violet shapes of partly transparent material, all of them in the size of my ear, also similar shape. All of the stones were placed in the same distances from each other. I examined the closed one.

Through I could say much more than describing its colour, I had a feeling or really saw that the longer I stare at the 'stone', some fog starts to shape inside it. Suddenly the face of an umbreon formed in the stone and the voice echoed:

"...fight the demons of this world, it had to be no victims left to hide."

Taken by surprise, I spun quicker than I thought. and not even a second later the weird stone broke into pieces, being pierced by a glowing, green leafy tail.

"And the Six Threats of the Darkling just got fucked, one of twelve saved knowledge of umbreons, future generations gonna thank you," echoed a voice from the right. Jumping once again with my green blade prepared I turned to voice direction.

The old espeon was sitting there calmly looking bored, rather than angry.

"What was it?" I asked.

"The 'this'? That's the finest of psychic achievements. The proof that our species is intelligent. It's memory record, knowledge recording, psych-creation, Oracle. Depend on who you gonna ask. You just destroyed one. Masterpiece, the umbreon saved in psychic energy, I can't even imagine how hard it needed to be to put dark-type's knowledge into a psychic or firstly learn them. I will miss 'The wildest of the Pack'," said sadly Vila.

"Could you explain? Did you know I followed you?"

"Oh, yes, Vilastaaday will explain. Vila knows many things, also that you will come. Old likes to come here and learn," said the old espeon.

"So?"

"The thing you destroyed was precious, everyone wants to save its knowledge but only a few are able to, if you are skilled, you can read them, you showed me you can, that I chose right," the espeon said, and stretched his ear until he fell to the side and stayed this position. "Vila also know you would come, skilled espeon can see future. Psychic abilities, it damaged our mind, hehe," laughed the espeon, standing up.

"Like, you look into the future?" I asked puzzled. I always considered these abilities as impossible. "If you see the future, you knew I will destroy the... knowledge."

"Eyy!" whined espeon shocking its head. "Knowing the future is dangerous, just like saying others that you know it, it can kill them."

"But you just told me," I noticed taking a moment to wonder if I was just stupid or this espeon was changing the tempo of this talk every sentence making it awkward.

"I told you what I needed and you coming here did what you needed," said espeon.

"I needed to destroy this stone?"

"That what we try to say!" exclaimed old espeon. "An accident, an accident is what we need. Vion thinks different, invisible, immortal, do everything on it own. Vion is stupid, just like Vila, so... so... what your name?"

"Zar," I said.

"Zar! Zar? Don't you have a different name? This one is a bit lame," judged espeon.

"I like my name."

"Yeah, it's fine. But not the one who has to bring the fire and by the fire live! To scream fire, to bring the fire! It's just to short! 'Zar' you can scream when someone stomps on your tail."

"What?" I asked not following the talk any longer.

"Our Pack screams 'fire' by 'fire' it lives, it's the beast we try to tame. The Pack doesn't exist without the knowledge is achieved. Eeveelutions, eevees, eons, all need to be controlled or they split into smaller groups."

"It's not getting cleaner at all," I noticed as Vila explanation didn't change much, I felt it oscillate somewhere around the Dark Litter theme, but still I didn't know what he meant. I made notice to never ever try to look into the future, even if it would be possible for me. Now it looked more like some illness, rather than ability. "I completely don't know what you are talking about, I came here to ask you about something completely different. I wanted to learn more about Metro, about absols, about the world so close to us."

"Oh, so it's not yet, I said too early, it's not this future, it's another, this one. Tricky leafeons, kept knowledge for themselves, hidden, protected, only for them. But they are all dead and there are no leafeons to read. You have to learn, you have to find everything by yourself. You need to go first by leaves and then by thorns," said the espeon, pointing its paw to the left end of the cave, but suddenly dropped it back down. "Wait, what is Metro? Why did you actually come here?"

"So, you don't know?"

"What you think I am? Clairvoyant? Mentalist?" asked offended espeon.

"Aren't you?" I questioned puzzled.

"You are mistaking the idea, looking into the future isn't some kind of dream that shows you everything that happens. If you kick a tree, it will hurt, if you throw something in the air it will fall. Does this knowledge makes you clairvoyant?" Vila looked at me meaningfully waiting for the answer.

"Eh, no, but..."

"No, it's not different, foreseeing future by psychic isn't anything different. However, fueling your thinking with psychic makes it possible to take more possibilities in the count, to calculate the chance for them and chose the most probable one," explained Vila.

"Why is it dangerous then? How it can damage a mind," I asked, but then I get the idea. Trying to foresee future you don't know what you will see, yet you have to power up your mind with energy, if the future holds a lot of possibilities it can be too much.

"You guess right, also learning future automatically changes it. I said enough, now I see it's destiny for someone different," Vila suddenly change his tone to very serious. He stood up and walked to the wall that immediately opened for himself and closed right behind him leaving me alone. For a while, I stood still looking at the wall where the insane espeon disappeared, hoping that he just play with me, I really hoped as I didn't know how to find the exit from this cave.

I jumped to the wall and pressed my wound to the dark stone. Nothing happened, I pressed wound much harder but once again nothing happened.

"Fuck," I cursed under my breath blaming myself for the idea to follow an ill-minded psychic-type, like, there were not many more stupid things I could do in life! I walked alongside the wall but besides the cave was large, start to feel it's just round I was making circles.

I looked over the rest of the cave, at the dozen of purplish, half transparent stones, each with colourful gleaming fog flying inside that, learning from the last experience, gonna form into some eon face at close examination.

"Well, if they contain knowledge then maybe they know how to exit this room," I wondered, and walked to the first closes one.

* * *

Listening to another oracle, this time an aggressive looking jolteon, I quickly learned that I won't learn anything from these 'oracles'. No matter if it was the face of an espeon, flareon or sylveon talking, everything was strictly for each type, and to understand anything someone really needed to already have huge knowledge. Also, there was nothing about leafeons, the most forgotten and ignored type it seemed, this place needed to be old, eeveelutions in the stones weren't alive any longer or I didn't remember seeing them anywhere. Leafeons had to live back then, didn't they leave anything about them?

I tossed Nibra the Noonecares across the cave in the middle of an explanation about how to groom fur to maximise electricity charging, a result of creating feedback in the coat and uses of the tail as a voltage divider. The oracle flew through the cave, but didn't land with the expected sound. Instead, there was only a silent 'thud'.

I easily found the stone I tossed, it wasn't talking any longer. The reason it landed safely was because of something actually growing here. From the thin crack in the stone, there was a single black leaf pending, the one that was a resolution to Nibra's landing. Now the steam was broke. I never before saw black leaf so I curiously touched it.

The broken steam started to rebuild, but when it was fully healed, it kept growing. Suddenly the growth sped up, and the dark plant shot up, quickly reaching and overpassing my height, reaching the ceiling. The vines curled and hardened, the right side covered itself in more black leaves, getting a shape of a very small tree. However, the left stayed naked and instead of leaves, it grew in thorns and bark that looked like tiny scales.

From both sides, from the left between thorns, at right between leaves were shining mostly green orbs. Remembering to not destroy them, I looked into the first one, seeing the forming fog. But this time the face didn't show onto the stone, but the fog shot out, surrounded me and changed my environment as I suddenly found myself in the deep forest at a clearing grown by short green grass. Next to me was an older, yet still attractive leafeon, whose leaves were so green and delicate even a gentle wind may destroy them.

"The leafeon, how to start and expand," the female leafeon said and paused looking for a moment. "What? Did I miss something with my look? I thought I remember how leafeon looks like."

"No it's fine," I breathed being in a little shock. "I just, I've just never seen a leafeon."

The female looked at me weirdly, scanning me from my paws to the tips of my ears.

"Weird indeed," she agreed. "Do these white blades disqualify you as leafeon?

"Sorry, I meant other than me," I corrected.

"So, you live in some distanced region?"

"In the Middle."

"I don't get it, you couldn't be so unlucky to miss leafeons in the Middle, there is a lot of us. Just next to it is Grand Clearing, you had to be there at least once," she said sitting down.

"You mean where exactly?" I asked.

"It isn't so small that you need an exact description, because the pack still exist right?"

"Yes."

"And there is still split into five regions?"

"Five? I not sure, but I guess there is more than ten."

"More than ten? And the leader? Is it still Fabi the Tailless?"

"Who? I didn't even hear about him...,"

"Her," she corrected me.

"Her? I didn't know females could be leaders," I said puzzled.

"Why you think like that?" leafeon frowned.

"Because leadership is achieved by physical strength and females grow smaller than males," I notice, sitting down too and taking a glance of the environment.

"Since when leadership depends on physical strength?! How stupid! A leader should be an eon with charisma and general pack support, with knowledge, not muscles. This way completely disqualify leafeons!"

"Uh, I didn't plan to become a leader," I shot without much thinking.

"Wait, wait, wait. First thing, how much time has passed?" the female asked.

"Since what?"

"Since the idea of rebuilding the training system. That instead of grouping newly evolved into groups with one teacher, replace it by giving newly evolved direct treatment," said the leafeon, but I completely didn't remember anything like that had a place. Newly evolved were still trained in groups by a single teacher.

"Well. If you remember female leader, it needed to be very long ago, like before Azor and now a leader is Sogot that already rule twice as long as normal eon would be. I guess it can be over... one thousand five hundred moons? But that's a bit impossible" I tried to count but numbers seemed much too big.

"Over one hundred years!" she chirped with wide open eyes.

What? She was using Sonya's way to count time? With minutes and hours?

"Why did no one tell me?!" she continued to shout. "There was some break from the last visit but I didn't realise it was so long! So you are not just another student? How did you get here?!" she jumped on all four and pierced me with an angry look. "You look experienced but smell like fresh grass, yet smell can be deceiving! Are you here to burst me out?!"

"No no!" I disclaimed jumping up by her disclaimed sudden change from calm to angry, but also because her angry leafeon face was scary. "I just got lost, then I touched the leaf, the tree appeared and then I suddenly appeared here!"

"I see," she said, losing her scary face a little.

"But where I am exactly?" I finally asked.

"In me. Listen, I don't know how leafeons techniques changed during these years but this plant is a modified Afterlife Plant," she tried to explain, yet I didn't understand.

"What?" I only said.

"Okay, maybe I should start from the very beginning," female leafeon harrumphed. "The leafeon, how to start and expand. I am your teacher, my name is Tera and I am going to let you in basic and advantage leafeon's knowledge. What's your name and, uh, I usually don't ask for it but how long are you a leafeon? Like I said earlier, you look already experienced yet you have a smell of newbie."

"Wow, so there something to learn about! And I thought my type is so useless!" I exulted happily and reminding myself of Sonya's measurement of time I added. "Oh, sorry. My name is Zar, I evolved like a year ago, it's nice to meet another leafeon!"

Though I wasn't sure now why I called it Sonya's way to measure the time. Days, weeks and years were known in the pack, it just wasn't unified. Some were using moons or sessions and some days and years and I, it seemed, was jumping from one way to another.

"You get so wasted just in a year? How old are you in general?" asked Tera.

"Hey, there was some information from me now answer a few of my questions!" I countered. "Where we are, what is it 'Afterlife Plant'?"

"It would be a part of your learning, but if you want to know it faster. The grass type specialisations, affecting plants natural behaviours and structure but also so-called green, it means with a tissue-like plant, part of the body. In practice, it means that you can change the taste of the fruit for sweeter, force the berry bush to create more fruits or your own tail and other leaf-like parts to adapt them to produce, for example, new kind of pollen." started to explain Tera.

"So it's just to change the taste?" I interrupted.

"If you mean the possibilities of basic knowledge, yes. More advanced can fill the tastes fruits with the wildly venomous poison with such precision to as to choose how long its prey will live after eating it, and how much pain it will suffer. BUT we are not talking about these things! You gonna learn that on the Path of Thorns," said Tera.

"So now there are some paths?"

"Yeah, these are basic we skipped. So, there is only the path you can train. I am not sure how leafeon's stuff looks like now outside, but once it had a very strong position in the pack. With time there appeared two different ways to use leafeon's powers, so-called paths. Firstly there was a lot of them, going into the world you may meet leafeon using the path you don't know but here we teach only two paths. First one available for every leafeon is the Path of Leaf, it contains the most important for the pack abilities, mostly healing and changing the environment to serve us better. The second path is called the Path of Thorns, it focuses on a more offensive way to use grass-type abilities, this knowledge isn't available to every leafeon. Only those with preferences can finish training.

Every leafeon starts from the Leaf Path, you need to learn at least the basics to go any further. These aren't just fancy names, abilities are split at paths, as grass-types noticed long ago that learning abilities from 'other' family make some other abilities weaker. Learning some "Path" you can be sure that all abilities will work with each other and you can achieve greatness. Learning on your own you can achieve everything too, but mostly you become some shitty leafeon who knows a little of everything, not being good in anything specific. Both Leaf and Thorns path is considered as equal to each other, but not every path is equal, too. In the pack is, or I should say was, the third Path. These who learned this were called 'the Rotten' as their leaves and skin looked like near dying no matter of their real age. They were connecting abilities from two opposite paths but they never appeared really useful and under the equal strength of two leading paths in our Pack." Tera explained going into full teacher voice, half closing her eyes as if reading all off this from the back of her eyelids.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting it to be complicated," I admitted. "And what about this Afterlife Plant?"

"Shh, I didn't finish yet. So following the Leaf Path you can achieve specialisation that allows you to affect plants which can lead you to create your own Afterlife Plant."

"Okay, but what is it?"

"It can be you. If you have family or someone you don't want to leave just yet you can modify yourself, allowing your flesh parts to die and transfer your will into it, prepared for its leaves. Like, you don't create some kind of new brain but the new environment. It's hard to imagine but it works. Here is an example," she said. I was expecting her to show me something, but she was just standing and the longer I was watching her the more confused she looked.

"Example is where?" I finally asked.

"Well, I am an example. I agreed to keep the knowledge of Leaf Path in times when eons started to save their knowledge. We did it differently than any others, it was espeons who found a way to create spheres where knowledge could be kept. Leafeons weren't fully convinced to this, back then espeons and leafeons were very competitive groups. Also, we were worried about pokemon who may read it later so they did it in a new way, a very leafeon way."

"So I am talking with a plant?" I asked Tera and she narrowed her eyes.

"Do not call me 'plant'!" she hissed. It reminded me that I, too, hated to be mistaken with a plant.

"Sorry," I apologised putting my ears down. "I just said it without thinking."

Tera sighed.

"Okay, the worst is that you have right. You talk to the plant. If you are leafeon for a year now, you needed to feel a connection with plants. We use the same connection right now, it just much stronger due to the modifications I and others involved in this created in, well, my body. I am an Afterlife plant, but don't ask me why. I have my private reasons I want to keep for myself," Tera said walking a few steps away before facing me again.

"Okay. So this Leaf Path. How we start?"

"With an explanation, the lesson can take a few days. For this time I prove all needed nutrients to your body and will be full of energy when we finish so you don't need to worry. First, we go through theory than to practice. The last thing, you need to say if you even want to start learning."

* * *

Fun fact. Some of the names come from my national language Polish. 'Żar' for you Zar because of the lack of 'ż' in the English alphabet and that no one would know how to pronounce it, means "heat/ember but also cinder.


	20. CH20 'ABC Leafeon'

_*Yawn*_

I yawned again as Tera's lesson kept going and going. My enthusiasm got drained away by a long explanation of the grass-type element, attributes and other basic knowledge and my mind turned off somewhere in the middle of the explanation about ninth contraindications of use intoxicating pollen with recklessly composited proportions. Like, it did not always make a target sleepy, depending on the targeted creature it could cause a feral effect or cause any kind of reaction.

"... the pollen should be prepared before you have to use it. It's the product of your body and it's produced all the time, but it's getting active at your will. You won't be able to change it in a single moment, for leafeons who don't make it every day it usually takes half of a day to modify their pollen, if you are therapist or healer in the pack and need to modify your pollen more often you can shorten this time but it requires practise and training. However, you can have prepared a dozen types of pollen to exhale. Obviously, we don't count oxygen, having leaves you will produce it anyway..." lectured Tera at me, and I really tried to listen leaning against a low tree branch and fighting my falling eyelids. "...damaged leaves will be less effective to even non-effective at all. As the name says, the Path of Leaves concentrates in leaves, besides all healing abilities it offers, it contains also a few offensives. Just like for every other type, there is a way for grass-types to create emancipation of their grass-type energy. For flareon, it is all some kind of flames, for vaporeon forms of water, for leafeons, there is only one form of emancipating this energy, by contracting it in leaves. That should make this fragile part of the body able to stand much more before being injured. It's called 'offensive' but it's main use it to keep your leaves working. It was quite often that someone broke his tail in rush to heal someone. It kept its 'offensive' statue because it's ability borrowed from different school. Currently not existing in the Path of the Wild."

"Different eeveelutions also have some Paths?" I asked hearing another 'path', so far I could grasp a sense of these different ways of learning. Like, elements were already enough, there was no need for more selections.

"Of course they have! It's not possible to learn every aspect of your type, it needs to be split and categorised. But you can't complain, leafeons has only three main paths, rest are just some mixes of these three, comparing it to eighteen main circles of espeons, it not that much," answered Tera peacefully, pausing her main lecture.

"Really they have so many?"

"There is a Lodge of the Mind, Telekinetic, Daytime, Research and much more but I don't remember them all. You should ask some espeon if you want to know it all, though some of their Lodges are so elite that would be really hard to find at least one espeon for every specialisation, I teach about leafeons so I need to remember only these three main Paths."

"Leaves, Thorns and Wild. Yeah, it seems easier," I breathed, still missing the point of these fancy names.

"Wrong!" Tera said so aggressively that I immediately jumped from my branch waking my brain up. "None of these are main Paths! Learning one of the three main Paths won't prepare you for future life! Learning the Plant Path, you may be able to grow the greatest forest the world had seen, but you won't survive to really make it. The Path of Light may make from you the most powerful duelist, but you won't survive either. The Path of Type leads to self-improving your own body and you may survive but you won't to be able to help anyone. Only by mixing some these three you can achieve what leafeon should be. Leaf Path stand between Light and Plant Path, it teaches you everything that can be expected from leafeon to keep your pack well supported. The Path of Thorns isn't as necessary as Leaf Path, it's for these rare leafeons that have some of the dark-type in their heart. They form invisible claw of Leafeon Tribute in the pack that keep other species around as prey for the pack, weakening them, preventing from evolving, absorbing their health, making them nothing more than food."

"Can absol evolve?" I asked.

"Eh? What? When did we move from grass-type to absols? Why do you even ask me about that? I am a leafeon specialist, I don't know much about absol besides they exist. How you got this question?" asked Tera, visibly knocked out of her theme.

"I just kind of need this knowledge," I tried to explain. " I met one and I have strong feelings I will cross my path with her's again. I want to know more about this species. Do you know anything about them?"

"Not much besides some obvious things. Besides being dark-typed, they do not spend so much in the night like umbreons. They are also not natural for this environment and they were brought from very far to the Dark City as they are a dark type. Some humans use them to capture our pack mates, they are strong in a fight, but easy to deceive, like, they have to many doubts to react fast enough. Well, unless they focus fully, then you lose. Similar in shape but always larger and psychically stronger, they always win in a direct fight. Flareons are great against them as they really like their fur, while their fur doesn't like fire, heh," Tera smiled at some memory in her head, or how it looked."Oh, and besides they are dark-type, they share a lot with ice-type and their pride. They are extremely proud of themselves, using it you can easily avoid an open fight. Just mention something about blizzard-like fur or intelligence and they will hesitate with anything they had to do, like preventing you from escaping. But no, I think they do not evolve or at least I never heard about any other stage then just 'absol', they only grow larger, fluffier, more stubborn and stronger as they get older. Though they have access to some extra evolution our spices don't have so you may see some of them with wings, but they are mostly the same, just even bigger and stronger. I don't remember any fights against these pokemon."

"How prising them can help with defeating them?" I asked.

"Zar, you weren't paying attention, 'defeating' isn't the right word to use in this case. It rather can raise your chances for surviving, also this worked back then when they were all attached to some human and couldn't go far from it. In a case meeting a wild one, it may be much worse. Even if they stop for the moment, they run fast enough to prevent you from fleeing," corrected the older leafeon. "The best tip for absols, just like against any other pokemon, is to meet them while being in a group. We are not the biggest, strongest and most intelligent creatures, we aren't also the fastest to reproduce to be so overwhelming in number so it's better to look for the ways to avoid any confrontation instead of trying to win them."

"Oh," I breathed sadly. "But if eeveelutions still exist then we need to have something we are good at. Also, the Pack had to have been somehow created!"

"I didn't say we are worthless, we just aren't good in a direct fight. We hide quite easily, and well, we are all cute," giggled Tera.

"Cute?" I repeated it with doubt in my voice. I didn't know what super ability this supposed to be, besides finding a mate.

"Of course. Combination of long ears and tail, colourful fur and big eyes make us look friendly and innocent, that no one takes us as a serious threat. I mean, these intelligent species don't take as a threat, meeting for example an avalugg, you shouldn't depend on your cuteness, it's not only to big to notice that but also too stupid to understand," Tera explained and scratched behind her ear with her rear paw. "But stuff like that isn't my thing. I remember there was always some exploration group that was collecting the knowledge from lands eeveelutions doesn't walk every day, I do not remember how it was called... The Shining Sun maybe? If they still exist in this your 'modern Pack' then they should answer your questions. But now back to the lesson, we ended a lecture, now my favourite part, practice!"

Tera stood up and moved to my right, shook her leaves on the way.

"Hmm, something easy for the good start. I want you to create the pollen that doesn't make any effect but smells like sweet strawberries on a cold morning at the hot season of the sun, take into account that session of the snow was extremely coldly and followed by a few weeks of stormy weather, but the rain itself was warm, the wind blows mostly from... hmm. From the south. It's your first try so let make it with a south wind, north one makes the smell slightly more refreshing which is harder to achieve for newbies," commanded Tera visibly enjoying herself while I already lost what I supposed to do. "Hey, better start now, we have a lot to train! You don't want to stay here for a week, do you?'

* * *

The unreal clearing wasn't simulating time or day and night phase. It was always beautifully lit up by the sun with sporadic white swirls of clouds in the sky. I knew how much time had passed only because of my growing tiredness. The strawberries scent was only the beginning, next was mango and apples. Then we moved to non-fruits or plant related scents like meat, ash or blood, they were much harder but after many attempts, I got Tera's appreciation and we moved to unreal, non-existing or imaged scents like the scent of dryness, of hunger or worry.

"How I supposed to create the scent of worry?" I asked when Tera judged my last attempt as 'unsatisfying'.

"Just like every scent before just this one with the 'worry' emphasis," said Tera, sitting on the only flat stone above grass level.

"But the worry is an emotion! It doesn't physically exist, it can't be smelled," I said, looking up at her breathing with full mouths because of the efforts.

"So?"

"So there is no way I start to smell like 'worry'! What we are even doing, shouldn't we train some real abilities instead of smells?"

"Ehh," sighted Tera stretching. "Looks that you are from these less skilled," she grumbled. "I am teaching you abilities, I guide you on the Path and the Leaf Path focus on the leaves. The pollens you will use in the future will be an effect of your skills and imagination. It's very useful and effective in the wilderness ability, and one of the simples one. We can't move forward without the basics."

"Okay but the scent of worry? You could just say that you want me to practise until you say to stop," I commented, Tera, narrowed her eyes and twitched an ear.

"I don't want you to practice until I say to stop, I want you to create the pollen that smells with worry!" said Tera and grumbled silently under her breath. "Not only unskilled but also impatient and rushy. How did you even evolved this way?"

"Hey, I am not impatient!" I objected and Tera slightly jolted.

"Well, at least you have good ears," she smiled and jumped off the rock. "It's obvious that 'worry' doesn't have a smell, but leafeons, besides affecting ill bodies of our friends, can also affect healthy bodies of our foes. 'The scent of worry' is pollen that makes the target feel worried. The same if I would ask you to create a scent of fear or panic. We moved here a bit in a psychic-type zone, but instead of using psychic, we use a natural product of our leaves. It can't make them hungry, thirsty, tired or sad. Even a scent of strawberries or mango can be useful sometimes, after all not every ability has to be for combat. You will remind yourself these words walking at some romantic midnight with your mate," giggled Tera. "Being a leafeon is a peaceful life. Even being on the Path of Thorns, it's still living away from combat. You have, or are supposed to have, others to do it for you. Obviously, there are some of the self-defence abilities, but I can see in your eyes awaiting or expectation of something powerfully destructive and deadly. Things of mass destruction are for flareons, destruction with precision for umbreons, flexibility for espeons and the list go but we do not appear in any flashy aspect. We just help. I mean, in case if we wonder about typical 'who is best in some area', but I am not saying that as leafeon you have lost every fight you pick," said leafeon giving me longer glance before snapping out. "Oh my, I chatted away a bit. I guess I will send you away for now."

"Already? I'm sorry! I didn't want to offend you with these questions...

"That's not because of your questions Zar!" Tera cut me, visibly amused. "You can't learn everything about leafeons in a single day! It's not possible for our brains to successively save so many information so fast. Especially when you are distracted by different stuff. Give yourself a week or two of rest and then come again. But even resting try to find time for some practice for your leaves! When we meet again I want you to improve and move on the more advanced things instead of repeating what you should know since today."

"Oh, okay. But there is one more thing left," I said reminding myself how I get here. "I found you in the cave without the exit."

"Eh? No problem, I have long roots, I will leave you somewhere else."

Before I had occasion to ask what she actually wanted to do, my view on the unreal meadow was replaced by the back of my own eyelids.

The feeling of the unreal world faded away, replaced by very realistic stimuli of little and hard pebbles stinging my side. I opened my eyes and saw the curved bank of the familiar river. Seeing the flowing water I smiled slightly at the fact that no one ever tried to name this river. It was amusing that in this rampage of naming everything around the river somehow stayed only as the 'river'. At second thought, every place that had a name, got this name because of something. Like the Middle, because of the being in the centre, and the rest four biggest regions, got its name from a direction from the Middle, besides they are not so perfectly placed as their name says. To get to the East region from middle I would need to first go north and then change the course for the east. However, these bigger regions had a very multi-typed population, if there was some smaller group, for example, of jolteons and they used to live somewhere for some longer time, the place was getting a name after their population, like something related to jolteon plus geographic environment. For example, Lighting Bank or cave or whatever. However, for naming jolteons stuff more popular word was 'thunder' which I was finding a misuse. Jolteons never were creating real thunders, the sound they were creating was more like 'bzzz' instead of ears ripping thunder, so they were more 'bzzzing' then thundering, but from the other paw which jolteon would want to say that he comes from 'Bzzz Clearing'. No one would take it seriously. Is 'Bzz' even a word of just my attempt to repeat the sound?

Looking higher I noticed the sun was just getting up and still was partly covered by a snow-white peak of the mountain. Good that I was not glaceon and I don't need to live there, I hate cold.

The little stones under my side became so irritating they motivated me to stand up and get a better view on my surrounding. Like I already noticed I was at the bank of the river just in front of the last line of the bushes. Standing here in the beautiful white sand and facing the river I should have the Lodge Caves right behind me or rather behind these bushes and trees, and a good three days of digging as from this side the tunnels were running deep underground.

But in front of me should be... nothing? The opposite side of the river was for sure still part of the Middle and I didn't mean some edge but a normal integral part of it, yet I don't remember ever walking there.

"Eh, I don't have anything better to do anyway," I said to myself besides having a lot of things to do right now, like, for now, I didn't find any answer I was looking for, finding instead a dead leafeon keeping herself alive as a plant.

However, there was still the river 'river' on my path. It wasn't very wide or deep in this part and I didn't see any ice flowing on the surface right now, yet it still needed to be very cold.

Having enough of river involved adventures but still willing to explore the unknown part of the forest I started moving along the river's sometimes sandy sometimes overgrowth by thicket bank.

The river was slightly turning and getting wider, so was the bank revealing quite large and nice beach. Yet on another side of the river, the beach was still much larger and wider, with a small hill close in the background, where was lying the familiar broken trunk full of holes of some old tree.

I recognised the lagoon of the Middle, place to spend free time, have fun and relax. I was missing this place for long but I didn't recognise it at the first sigh, though it was the first time when I could see it from the second side of the river. Which meant that 'unknown' part of the forest could be just the place I know, just from a different perspective. Though most of the lagoon was peaceful and the water level wasn't higher than withers, closer to the bank I was currently was the main flow of the river and the bottom was much deeper. I continued to walk alongside the river until I reached the main shallow.

It was the safest place to cross the river, being quite popular, almost never abandon if the weather wasn't bad enough to force eeveelutions to their dens. Vaporeons always liked this place a lot becoming an inseparable part of the shallow environment. They are very helpful to help those who may have a problem to cross the river, like eevees who weren't tall enough, some older eons or every second flareon. Flareons always had a problem with the river, it could be also the reason why Sogoth wasn't visiting the second bank before he had great motivation to do it or a lot of businesses to deal with. Flareons had this disadvantage that they had a way to much fluffy fur and weighted more than their actual size could suggest. When their fur got wet and heavy they were going down like a stone and stuck in a soft sandy bottom of the river, if it were stones at the bottom the mighty walk and save themselves from drowning but for sure it wasn't easy for them to hold breath. Even on the land, when their fur was wet their moving was much slower but they could dry themselves quite quickly raising their temperature. The most problematic it was when they were too exhausted to warm themselves, for them, it was like a reversed fever. So, to avoid some terrible accidents, vaporeons at the shallow and generally the river, great swimmers could fulfil the role of rescuers and be doing it quite willingly. Mostly to show off but at least some fire-types and rest bad swimmers could use it and have at least one save passage and a lot of them were using it every day.

Today at the shallow was only a small group of eons of every gender gathered near the bank. Two females, skinny vaporeon around my age and older sylveon touched by the time, standing next three males, really tall espeon and another vaporeon through this one was visibly training hard. However, with the vaporeon's poor fur only slightly covering their scales, muscles were quite noticeable even if they weren't anything impressive. There was also jolteon, just jolteon... without anything specific thing I could tell just by seeing him, the most jolteon jolteon I could imagine, as if created from the typical jolteon description. Four legs, bright yellow fur colour, some white on the mane, a bit spiky and a bit angry natural facial expression.

"I feel in my bones that gonna be just as always, few words about the 'plan' for future which won't change anything," I heard sylveon talking as I approached, besides her age, she had a strong voice. Singer, I guess.

"Hello," I said as they didn't see me approaching. "Anything wrong?"

"Oh, hello. No, we just wait to get on another bank. Now you wait with us I assume," having the best reflex or just seeing me approaching by psychic, espeon answered me first, easily looking over vaporeon back and quickly convinced me that he used psychic. "The appearance I felt seemed strange and now I see why, fascinating eon-plant, planteon...

"It's actually leafeon but I prefer being called Zar by the others eons," I cut the espeon and his weird welcome.

"No one can make the first sight like you Weck, excuse him Zar. Weck is... gathering the knowledge about the eon species and so far we only heard about grass-type in our pack." skinny vaporeon defended hers, I guess, friend.

"Wasn't it already done? Like ten times?" I questioned reminding that at lessons for eevees most information about eventual evolutions was told.

"For education, yes, but I am doing it in case some of the types would end, become extinct, disappear. To save the memory about them." continued Wack and I already know I won't be liking him.

"Wack, you are making yourself looking weird," mumbled under his breath male vaporeon.

"Don't worry most espeons are making themselves weird," I snorted slightly.

 _What?! Me too?_

Cera's voice echoed in my mind making me jump surprised.

"Uh, no, of course not," I said bluntly to the air wondering when did she start to stalk me.

 _Thanks!_

"Amazing," whispered Wack, "We were so lucky to see leafeon talking with grass! The connection with the environment at the unimaginable level, some inexperienced eye could take it as the sight of madness but I clearly felt you go some answer."

"It wasn't talking with the grass! I just..." _had psychic conversation thought the connected minds?_ " this tree over there asked if it's warm already," I lied, the espeon was already so hyped that he didn't sense the lie. "Guess I will be going bye."

I moved toward the river.

"Won't you wait 'till waters level will come down?" asked jolteon.

"Nah, I am a great swimmer I can get to the other side now," I answered being already in the water, it really was higher than usual but I really wanted to leave this group behind, also it was too late to go back now anyway.

I lost the grip of the bottom and I started to swim with only my head above the cold water. The current changed my curse a little but unless it was storming I could float above the water quite easy and almost effortlessly. I reached the opposite bank and jogging I fastly moved into the Middle direction as I wanted to warm myself up.

"Are you still stalking me?" being away both, from the river and the Middle, I asked the air but thought about Cera. This time I hadn't voice answering me and the only noises I could hear were coming from the Middle as I was getting closer.

Entering the large clearing grassland full of small knolls with entrances to smaller or larger dens with ground slowly rising to place, so-called, the middle of the Middle. However, as always the clearing was full on eeveelutions so now I couldn't see anyone and the noises that now I could recognise as some voices, they were all coming from the behind higher part of the Middle. Generally, the Middle seemed to be quite flat and walking around didn't involve any hill climbing but at the same time it wasn't so flat to see the whole clearing from the single spots, the reason was multiple ground depressions and slight hillock.

With a fast walk, I followed the noises and just as I got closer I saw a huge mass of colours that like the water were surrounding a single island of one higher than environment and flat, white stone.

I generally got used to numerous eeveelutions in the Middle and variations of their type but it looked that today there is some special gathering and most of the whole pack came. Obviously, most of the eeveelutions here were usually living in the Middle but seeing in this mass of colour some gathering of single colours I could guess there were also some eeveelutions from not so mixed by type regions.

I didn't know what was the reason for this gathering but last time when I saw something like this was when I was still an eevee and dad said to me then that there is nothing that could interest me so I just returned to my den I tried to sleep.

But today was another day and there may be something that may catch my interest. Deciding to just try and find out I entered the crown immediately feeling the difference of temperature around. Eons, apparently weren't standing so tight at it seemed at the first sight, they were formed into smaller groups of, I guess, friends. These groups at the very edge weren't interesting what the espeon on the white and flat stone had to tell, or rather scream and talked among themselves. The further in the crowd I went the more eons were interested in what the espeon had to say and there was also possible to recognise what he was saying and I managed to recognised the espeon, it was Vion. The one I saw through Cera's eyes and the one Cera worried too much.

However, he wasn't saying anything important, just saying welcome to each region elder and type representing elders as they one by one stepped on the stone, alone or with a mate.

That could explain a lack of interest of the crown about what was happening in the centre but if there were so many eons around they needed to wait for something interesting.

"Hello Zar, you seem lost," Serge surprised me, coming out of nowhere and caught up to walk side by side with me.

"I kind of em," I answered to my friend. "What's about this gathering?"

"If I, like you, would disappear for a few days I may be surprised too, like, things like these never were happening before," said Serger pushing me a bit with a flank directing me.

"Things like what? Oh, wait, a few days? It felt like less than a day!" I gasped surprised.

"Yeah, few days, I would be dying from worry if Cera wouldn't say that you are fine and it doesn't have anything with the current situation," calmly said Serge.

"What current situation? Get over these umbreon guts and explain me something without making it mysterious!" I goaded, wanting to know what Serge has to say.

"Generally nothing good, few eeveelutions disappeared, and this old espeon with long name kept saying he had a vision of future, he had to tell about it today," finally Serge explained but the information didn't really get to me.

"Disappeared? Like what? Whoosh they gone or just got lost?" I asked worriedly.

"Hmm, something between whoosh and just lost," said Serge.

"Poor eons, I was lost once too, so there was someone looking for them?" I said though I was much more lost than them and more than once.

"Yeah, they even found them and that's the problem."

"How can it be a problem?" I asked puzzled.

"The problem was they were found... less than alive."

"They were killed?! Here? But who may...

"No, not dead. Just less alive that you need to be considered alive but not dead yet," tried to explain Serge. I took a moment to think about it.

"I don't get it. You mean ill?"

"If they would be just ill I would just say they are ill instead of trying to explain you something no one really understands Zar," said seriously umbreon. "Did you hear saying that the dream is the youngest son of the death? It's something in this way, they can't be wake up and espeons don't see them with their abilities, but they breathe."

"Oh," I only said finally getting some view on this mysterious mystery.

"Oh? Just, oh? Anything like that wasn't happening since the Pack was formed! I truly expected a different reaction from you," answered Serge but I could sense that the blame in his voice was fake.

"I saw worse things than worrying slumber," I chortled, but after a moment I realised it was actually sad that I changed so much. Thought I couldn't lie, meeting Metro was much more horrifying than this.

Serge looked over me carefully.

"I am a bit worried that I didn't sense even a smidge of lie or sarcasm," he sighed. "Some part of me says me that the world couldn't be very harsh to you because you returned alive, after all, you weren't very skilled at anything, but seeing the scar and your improvement other part says me that you really had a hard training."

"Well, it wasn't so hard, there were some bad moments but generally I was spending it in a company," I said as I didn't want him to worry about me now.

"I already heard you had some companion, though I don't know more. I wasn't taking part in your mind link with Cera," umbreon lowered his voice as the crowd got a bit tighter

"Well, I guess I can tell you she was a dark type but details later," I answered, also with a lowered voice.

"Are detail worth waiting?" asked dark type a little louder with a specific smile.

"Heh, yeah, these details can be quite nice and tempting and eh, big..."


	21. CH21 'Big detail'

We finally stopped, taking a nice spot with a great view on the whole horde of eons and the stone full of pack elders close to their mates, next were Aspirants and further on, Lectors, and obviously in the centre, Sogot, with his four bulky looking flareons behind him. Sogot kept calling them his guard, but I couldn't see a reason for having a guard inside of the pack. I guess it was something he got used to while being domestic or it was another example of his ego.

It was quite common for elders to use lectors, though it was rather a seasonal occupation, some eeveelutions were better giving speeches than actual elders, so they were using them to 'speak through them'. Nowadays, not having a lector could be even a shame, pretty eeveelutions with good voice became the picture of prestige in each region. Though I could understand the role of lectors, I never could understand what Aspirants were for, they were supposed to do something with the pack's politic outside of its territory, but I could swear that I see the same guys walking around almost every day and enjoying themselves. Though, on the second paw, there was not much to do outside of the pack's territory besides scouting, lurking, or trying to find a way back home.

"Any expectations?" I asked the umbreon sitting next to me.

"Not much, I am interested only in stuff directly affecting me. I think I may even leave earlier, depends when Lyn will have her time to speak," answered the dark-type.

"I've heard that name before, but I don't really remember."

"She is kind of a new leader of umbreons, and has to tell about the future of hunting," explained umbreon mocking.

"Kind of?"

"Yeah, kind of, to truly be an elder and deserve to be called Huntmaster, you really need to be something, but unfortunately the real elder currently is in this weird kind of dream I told you earlier about, so there was need for a replacement," said Serge, with rising anger in his voice.

Besides that, I had to ask.

"So why was there someone chosen that, in your opinion, doesn't fit this role?" I asked in the same moment as some Lector started his speech, but my friendly nocturnal ignored him.

"It isn't just my opinion, she just has three nights behind her," said Serge. I already knew that 'Nights' for umbreons meant the hunting trips, but not the ones to the closest forest, but the more dangerous ones. "It wasn't really a choice. No one thought that our Huntmaster would just be... well... out of reach. Maybe only Sogot would be able to do serious harm to him and even then, he would come here so generally everyone was shocked, but there was the need to chose someone for the meeting. There were four of us who informed Sogot about the problem, Lyn found him first so he was with us too. Accidentally, there was also this weird espeon, I mean this younger from these two weird espeons. Von? Vion? Doesn't matter, however, he suggested to Lyn as the temporary replacement. I don't know how he managed to convince us that that would be a good idea, if we weren't all umbreons I would have already accused him publicly for using psychic on us."

"Maybe he is just a great speaker?" I suggested shyly.

"Maybe he is, but still, Lyn shouldn't be so promoted, even temporary, that first. Second, since when can espeon decide about umbreon's things? We never liked each other, only some newly evolved find it interesting to break this standard and create a dozen of never working romances," Serge kept speaking nervously.

"But you need to admit that without these new evolved the number of young love tales would be decreased to just a few. Eons love shipping espeons and umbreons," I giggled, nudging the umbreon.

"I wonder why they don't ship vaporeons and flareons as often, it's a similar conflict," grumbled Serge, accepting a nudge with ignoration.

"Maybe because of how wet vaporeons can be and how easily it can extinguish the flareon's flame of temptation," I joked, but the umbreon didn't react immediately.

However, the growing thought that my friend became more serious then quickly died when I started to hear laughing coming from the deep of his guts that slowly was getting louder as he was making his way up the throat becoming honest and uncontrolled chortle.

"You know I love jokes that hit so many different levels at once," finally cackled umbreon shaking. Few eeveelution around looked at us with confusion probably wondering what was so funny in the lector's speech to make an umbreon laugh, I answered them with the nods of a face showing my apologies about my companion's sense of humour. For most, it was enough, while a few exceptions needed to keep looking for a few more seconds before looking away.

Oh my. I used Sonya's way of telling time unwillingly! Or one of the ways she was using as she mentioned moon phases too once or twice.

"But going back to Lyn, I gonna keep an eye on her," said Serge returning to his serious and silent tone.

"Do you want to spy on her?" I asked worriedly.

"Rather check her environment, it's just not right that some random eon gets such an honour," answered calmly dark-type.

"I see, just let me know if it would gets more interesting."

"In that case, it would be better to keep you away from it. Sorry, but if it would be something more than coincidence, for example, conspiracy in an attempt to weaken umbreons leadership, you wouldn't be much help," said Serge.

"Uh, I'm actually not sure why anyone would do something like that, I guess your nature speaks through you. However if not me, then Cera can be some help," I suggested, surprised by his imagination.

"But she is an espeon!" yelped umbreon.

"So what? Maybe it's not publicly official that she is my mate, she is trusted, you shouldn't doubt in her just because she is psychic!"

"She still is espeon and has espeons in her environment and was raised by an espeon's family. She may be trusted, but still, she thinks in the espeons' way."

"An espeon's way of thinking is not always a bad one," at the sound of a female voice, umbreon jumped on his paws. "Sometimes we have good ideas, like preventing some eeveelutions from hearing everything you said."

Cera slowly walked around, still bristled dark type and sat next to me looking at Serge unfriendly.

"However, I can understand your worries. The knowledge that you can be easily outsmarted, that someone can mock you or push you into the corner, can be very horrifying," continued Cera. "Today, I can agree with you."

"Eh, you mean, was I right?" questioned the confused Serge, calming down a little.

"No, absolutely. It's a completely different scale of the problem we are facing here," answered Cera, suddenly changing the voice to very serious. "I already know what you said to Zar about the weird dream."

"Hey, you said you don't read my mind!" I noted, but I wasn't actually sure how long Cera was listening to us. "Are you stalking me?"

"I wasn't, however because of our connected minds I was sucked into watching the world by your eyes and I saw your meeting with Vilastraday, anyway, interesting way to break a combination of a psychic barriers and illusions Zar," she winked. "But back to the dream, or I should say... ehm, generally we should keep ourselves away from it, but what I was wanted to say is..."

"Now we listen to Vilastraday and his prophecy of the future he promised to tell us!" boomed Sogot's voice, announcing another speech.

"Oh no already," whined Cera. I saw her lower her ears being visibly nervous and... scared? That was what her posture was telling me, but I could understand why.

"Great, besides Lyn it was second things I even came here," said Serge, sitting back down.

"No! Both of you stand up and run!" commanded Cera. Before I managed to ask her anything I felt the psychic power pulling me up on all fours and pushing me forward, for Serge, Cera went more directly pushing him with both her front paws but the effect was the same impressive and suddenly three of us were running through the crowd of surprised eons.

"Why?" asked Serge, looking back at Cera that kept pushing him to run faster.

"I will answer later, now just follow me as fast as you can, with all the trust you have to me," answered Cera. Though I wasn't convinced and I guess Serge wasn't too, we both nodded momentarily. Seeing that Cera smiled and took a lead, guiding as thought the crowd and pushing others out of the way with psychic. I needed to admit I never know that Cera could be so fast, without her still pushing me forward I would never be able to follow her. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Serge also had a hard time and only thanks to training and self-discipline he managed not to be left behind.

We managed to get out of the crowd, but Cera didn't stop there, nor did she allow me to stop, she kept pushing me with psychic forward, so we ran through the empty Middle to the sandy lagoon. Cera stopped right before water looking at the second bank.

"One moment," she shot, and shook her head once before lighting her eyes in blue light and the energy in the same blue light hit the water, stopping the flow and making the dry passage through the river.

"Okay, now go!" said Cera, returning to run across the bottom of the river. Serge and I looked at each other still confused, but followed without any further hesitation. This time I was slower as Cera wasn't supporting me, probably focusing only at the stopping river, so I was last to reach the opposite bank.

Just as I stopped at the second beach where I was walking earlier today, the river returned to flow with impact as the blue walls weren't stopping it any longer.

Again, I hadn't time to take a breath as Cera again threw me forward forcing me to run. This time Serge followed without being physically pushed.

"Where... where are we going," I managed to pant.

"Away from Vion and Vila, outside of the Pack!" screamed back Cera, blinking slightly in blue energy.

When did her psychic powers become blue? I wondered, reminding myself of the pink barriers in her den.

We entered the forest, and I meant the 'forest', generally, the whole Pack was in the forest, but eeveelutions had their desire paths. When we entered the 'forest', I meant this rarely visited part of the eon's territory.

Both for Cera and Serge running became harder, Cera was trying to push branches out of her way, while Serge was trying to avoid them. For me, however, running in the thickness became even easier, to the point I needed to slow down a little.

When we were completely lost and the side of the mountain's pass surrounding the Pack seemed to be quite close instead of being at the horizon, Cera slowed down and finally stopped panting heavily.

"What the fuck... are you thinking you're doing... forcing me to run so much after eating?!" said Serge, visibly having problems catching his breath or actually holding his stomach's possession.

"Hehehe," laughed Cera weakly, lying down tired. "I saved you."

Serge didn't answer probably just like me, not understanding the joke just yet. I was looking at them with a slight smile, happy Cera and frustrated Serge who was too tired to express his emotion. However, the worrying feeling that invaded my mind washed my smile away. It was something weirdly scaring, chaotic and gloomy.

"I sense that too, just at a different level," said Cera, noticing my change of mood. "Vion was right saying that the leafeons are equals to espeons. I guess it was the reason why they became extinct, at least in our pack."

"This feeling... what it is?" I asked, slowly being overwhelmed by the depressing emotions coming from the environment from the Middle's direction.

"That's a perversion, a disorder that haunts our world. It has many different names, but in general, it is some power of an unknown source that twists everything we have known," explained Cera, rolling on her belly.

"Oh, thanks. For a moment I was worried you felt my fart," breathed Serge, immediately getting a disgusted glance from the espeon.

"Your presence is disgusting," commented Cera, making the distance from the dark-type.

"Excuse me, but all I felt was a wave of the dark energy and it was you who called it a 'disorder'," shot back umbreon.

"So, you felt it as a wave of dark energy?" asked Cera, surprised.

"Yes," affirmed Serge nodding.

"That's interesting, at the psychic since it didn't felt like that at all," said Cera, in an apologising voice.

"In a green vision, it also felt different," I agreed with Cera.

"Green what?" asked both eeveelutions.

"Uhm," I mumbled abashed. "That's how I named the leafeon way of sensing things, green because of the colour of most of the plants... I thought it's a cool name."

"It's not," judged Serge.

"I think it would be better if you would leave naming things to some other leafeons," commented Cera.

"Okay! Fine! Weren't we talking about this world disorder?" I shot.

"We were, but we changed the atmosphere too much to talk about serious things," commented espeon.

"It's not about atmosphere, I just want what happened," I said honestly.

Cera, before answering glanced meaningfully at Serge.

"I won't be disturbing," said umbreon, shaking his head.

"Okay, so generally my knowledge about this theme isn't very impressive, but I got these pieces of information in just two days, so please don't blame me," said Cera slowly taking a seat. "So, it started by accident. I returned to my den very tired. Exactly the same day Zar disappeared again, Vion sent me to the team of espeons whose task was to check on some interesting object. It looked like kind of violet ice, but the only kind of, it wasn't cold or anything like ice. Generally scanning objects with psychic is quite exhausting, but this one was extremely hard to scan, at least to me. Some of the much less skilled or experienced espeons hadn't as many problems as I had. It seemed a little weird for me, but I guessed it just wasn't my day.," Cera made a pause for one deep breath.

"I returned to my den and took a nap. However, instead of some typical dream, I found myself in a dark chamber, I was talking with Zar's voice and I was seeing through your eyes. I remember you had something similar earlier so I wasn't panicking. Anyway, you have great ears, much better than mine. I heard everything Vila said and it confused me, he never showed this kind of personality ever before. It really worried me, an espeon who can see the future? It's not something normal, our psychic bodies aren't strong enough to stand such pressure of psychic energy. I started looking for information about how it can be possible. First I started with the teacher of my Lodge, but they weren't much help, only proving to me again I overpassed them. However, the group of espeons collecting history were a bit more helpful. I learned about the group of eeveelutions that once existed in our Pack that had access to unusual abilities. These abilities were partly ancestral, but only partly because every next generation of this group had weaker and weaker these special abilities. As the last known eeveelution being able to do something unusual was known as Azor the Duskeye. Obviously, this name came from this special ability which was just typical dark-type ability of unusual power," Cera took a moment to take another deep breath.

"As Vila named it, the Dark Litter is exactly the same line of eeveelutions, but it's something more than just genes, as not every eevee they produced had access to these special abilities. So it would be all about my knowledge, the rest is just my guesses," announced Cera. "So, from what I found, I can theoretically guess that the Dark Little didn't end at Azor but still exists somewhere. I think it can be Vila or Vion as both of them are unnaturally good at psychic, also Vion is able to create psych-creations and manipulate the distortion energy. He invented this... Dark Dream... or whatever it's called."

"I don't like the idea of calling 'dark' everything that's bad," marked Serge, giving the blink of his blue rings.

"That's how... okay, doesn't matter," the espeon shook her head before finishing the thought. "Anyway the reason why I evacuated you two was that I that at this clearing, in the centre of the Middle was concentrated so much psychic energy that I was afraid, and I still fear that.. that was the end of the Pack."

"What?" both of us asked surprised.

"The Pack end so suddenly, all these eeveelutions..."

"All these eeveelutions are now caught in this weird dream!" Cera cut the dark-type. "These random disappearances of different eons were just tests, practice, for Vion and Vila before trying it at a larger scale."

Serge didn't answer so quickly this time and looked at me for help but I answered him with a questioning look, though Cera's words were slowly sinking into my brain and realisation about what happened.

"But that doesn't make much sense, first, why one eon had to do anything bad to the second eon, second, putting everyone in the dream? For what?" finally asked Serge and I nodded my head showing I also share these doubts.

"As I said, these are not things I am sure about, but they seem a bit... not eons," said Cera slowly, looking for our expressions. Mine probably was quite obvious, I didn't understand most of the situation, but Serge, like always, wasn't showing many emotions. "And the second part, the distortion has a tendency to spread, if Vion had a connection with it, it probably wants to spread through him too, maybe this dream has to do something with it? I don't know, I got caught busy with saving you."

"Okay, but even if, what do you want to do with it? Yeah, you are quite skilled and proved that you are also intelligent if you needed just two days to collect so much information, I can be quite a good umbreon and there is Zar and being him leafeon makes him quite unique too, but it's still not equal to two psychic freaks having power over something not from this world," noticed accurately Serge.

"Uh, there also Metro that can be some help if it comes to learning something about Dark Litter," I said under my breath, but loud enough to let them hear.

"Metro?" asked the umbreon, unsure, shining slightly in questioning blue.

"Oh, right, I just realised you don't know anything about him... or it," I mentally face pawed myself finding current moment as not best to talk about the world-eating monster.

"Zar, what's Metro?" asked seriously Cera narrowing her eyes at me.

"Well, generally I am not really sure. I know rather what Metro isn't then what it is, and for sure it isn't anything we should be interested in."

"I am tired of mysteries for one day Zar," said irritated Serge.

"Okay, okay. So, in short, Metro is living thing, kind of evil mindful and intelligent plant growing under the 'ruins', in dark deep tunnels. It mostly spends time-consuming dark-type energy to grow larger, but it also adapts other creatures organs to support himself."

Now, seeing faces of my friend I could understand of stupid I needed to look when it was me who didn't understand a word.

"Oh, consume dark energy? Well, that's unfortunate," commented Serge.

"Why you didn't tell us earlier!" exploded Cera waving her tail angrily. "How did you get the idea that being silent about such abomination?! I thought that we just at the beginning of the curse spreading but if there is something like that living somewhere there then... then... well, I don't know. Guess we are fucked."

"I also once got transferred into a different dimension and then when I found the way out some shadowy monster was chasing me through the forest of bleeding trees and brainwashing fog," I added seeing how both their eyes slowly are getting wider as they were proceeding my words. "Hadn't you hadn't seen that with our mind connection?"

"Some memories were covered in dark, twisted or unreadable, but I didn't think that they hid something like that!" gasped espeon and shook her head. "We will leave it for later, we need to focus on the current situation."

After Cera's words, complete silence filled the space between trees and bushes and each of us as everyone was waiting for someone other to say what to do.

"Well," said Serge finally. "I would like to go and make sure that Liss is fine too."

"Already done, I send her psychic message telling that's from you. She is going through the mountains," Cera waved at the long mountain pass covering the horizon.

"How does she know where we are going?" I asked.

"She has to look for a narrow passage through the mountains, it's not very popular, actually I had only heard about it, but whenever we want to..."

"I was there," I cut her. "The passage exist and it should be fine, it's generally quite an unpopular area of the Pack."

"Great so there is our first destination. So, if we are already rested then let's get moving. Zar, make your grass-type duty and guide us through this thickness with the easier possible path," said Serge visible happier after hearing about meeting Liss.

"Uhm, ok, I just need to..."I mumbled, but the answer came faster then I managed to start to wonder how I supposed to find such a path. "I found it, follow me."

I wasn't following any instinct or ability, I just tried to go forward in the most typical for me, way, only sometimes reminding myself that following me, Serge was a little taller and generally slightly bigger, having that in mind I tried to avoid tight spaces between root or branches, and it seemed to work as they weren't complaining.

Going in a single file, we weren't talking, only sporadically if I had wait for them or if Serge accidentally bumped into Cera.

The forest was mostly silent, trees were moving in the slight gust of winds resounding with the sound of bending wood. First leaves started to appear, but they were still we rare to rustle, rustling were only two eeveelutions behind me, stepping on dry forest cover, but I didn't say them anything about that. It wouldn't change anything besides their moods to worse.

In the meantime, I started to wonder if telling Metro was an actually good idea. One does not simply walk into Metro's cave and now we were all three, with Liss, four, plus Serge was dark-type. He can appear tasty for Metro so I wasn't so sure if he should go there with us, though I didn't want any of them close to Metro. Also, Sonya was dark-type and all of sudden she attacked me which I somehow answered with dark-type kind of attack. This place for sure had something with dark-types and it wasn't anything good, I guess.

Wow, Serge had been right that we use word 'dark' too often, but on the other paw, it still sounded better than overusing words like bright or light like, Bright Litter sounds flatness. Talking about Dark Litter, I didn't tell them that most probably I was part of it, at least in some small part of me. Even now I doubted it as I hadn't any impressive ability and Cera said that each of them has some. Unless it was about the white colour of leaves that was slightly emitting light in the dark, but rather not. Maybe Metro was wrong assuming I had any connection with them, somehow related but without any stronger bond. Also, I thought it wasn't the best moment to share this information with my companions. It wasn't secret, if they ask I will answer but if they won't ask... For now, they thought that Dark Litter is total evil, the source of problems and generally very wrong, immoral, spreading curse things. Spearing them this news I spear them extra worry. Also, this news could be fake for Tera I was just leafeon and I guess that after years of training leafeons she would notice some difference much better than Metro did. Though Metro actually found this by accident by trying to consume me.

"Zar?" asked Cera bringing me away from my thought back to reality.

"Yeah?" I asked looking back, noticing the sky got quite dark and covered in stars.

"It's late, don't you want to rest? Even Serge started to feel sleepy," noticed Cera. Indeed Serge looked kind of sleepy having his blue rings dimmed.

"What have I become? Leafeon just keep going in the night toward dawn and me, the umbreon, am falling on my muzzle to sleep," mumbled Serge having his head and ears already low.

"I didn't even notice of fast time had passed," I admitted. However I couldn't blame myself for losing my sense of time, after all, I spend the last few days in Tera, or should I say training with Tera in her tree-kind-of. Whatever, what mattered was that actually sleep felt so distant for me that suddenly I became sleepy too. "This place could be comfy."

I pointed on bare but still thick bushes that had some free space close to the ground.

"It would be perfect," agreed Serge allowing me and Cera to lay down first before lying down covering us from the free passage under the bush. We lied close to each other sharing our warm or it was actually me who was taking warm, a little from the umbreon and espeon. Surprisingly, Cera, besides similar to me coat of the fur, was extending a similar amount of warm as much better prepared to stand cold, Serge.

Cera's eyes once again lighten up in blue covering for the moment the space around us in similar glow before fading away.

"That's for safety," explained espeon.

"Why it's blue now?" I asked.

"Typical it is pink, yes. But it's depending on the mind of psychic on which colour his energy is shown up. I always had blue, but my teacher didn't like that and wanted me to make it pink like every other espeon, now I just don't want to waste energy on something so stupid like colour," answered Cera in a sleepy voice. "Is it bad?"

"No, it matches your eyes," I noticed.

"Thank you, see you at dawn."

* * *

Morning came unexpectedly, in one moment I closed my eyes to fly into slumber, a second later I opened them to the rising sun. Whole night seemed like a blink of the eye, a moment, at that how I felt. Walking at the peak of our group I fought heavy eyelids and damping down yawn ripping yawns. My fur was a complete mess, dislocated and dirty, I just needed to damage my leaves and I would look just like I looked while walking with Sonya, or what was worse, I looked just like Sonya, just without this musk-like smell and high altitude.

Cera was the complete opposite, actually, she looked as if she would sleep in her den, had time in the morning to do her fur and wash in the river or whenever she used to take a bath. Then ate something gaining energy to function normally. The truth was she was deriving from her psychic abilities to refresh her mind and body keeping herself at the highest functionality. I was just wondering how long it would be working and what will happen when it stops working. Everything needed to have its drawbacks, but I trusted that Cera knew what she was doing, after all, she was espeon and should know espeon things and me, leafeon, shouldn't say a word about it.

Walking at the end Segre wasn't looking so bad as I felt but there was an effect of too short sleep in his eyes and his stomach was loudly demanding some morning eatables. Apparently, it wasn't part of the year to find much of edible things around and if we had to stay hidden without drawing the attention of two crazy espeons, then hunting also needed to wait.

It was all kind of weird, after all, we hadn't seen anything and depend on what Cera told me and Serge. It could be really stupid if it would appear that actually nothing happened and it would be Cera's joke or misunderstanding. Thought this mighty had to be like that, such suddenly, completely unexpected, if Vilastraday could see the future then planning anything hadn't much sense for us... uh?!

"Hey, Cera?" I spoked unsurely.

"Yeah?"

"If we are heading to this passage, and we think about it and keep doing it for a day and we keep doing it all the time and don't even think much about anything different, then would it be possible for espeon with an ability to foresee the future to discover our destination?" I asked. Serge raised his eyes on Cera visibly being interested in her answer too and Cera kept thinking, hesitant with the answer.

"It doesn't make much sense," she finally said.

"Oh, that's good, for the moment I really started to worry," I breathed.

"No, I meant it doesn't have much for us. How we supposed to do anything if he can just foresee this and what we want to do and prevent us from anything we would like to do against the distortion," said Cera wondering.

"He didn't guess that you will walk into the gathering and force two eeveelutions to run from it," noticed Serge. "Maybe it's not so perfect as we think it is."

"Zar, you were talking with him, how much did he tell you about his ability?" asked Cera.

How much he said to me about that? I couldn't remember much, this information was what I was focused on when Vila was sharing them with me.

"I think... he tried to say me that isn't anything amazing. That it isn't like travelling in time but calculating possibilities from the world around. Oh, and he said it drove him crazy," I answered trying to be as helpful as I could be beside I couldn't really remember.

* * *

Fun fact, Zar hadn't green/white leaves at the very beginning of the story. In the first version of the idea he had normal leaves but then while I was walking through the forest walking out my dogs and I found this pretty looking plant with double coloured leaves (Silverleaf Poplar ;p ) and then I got the idea that Zar will have these leaves because why not, he is the main character, he needed something unique ;)


	22. CH22 'Return'

CH22 'Return'

* * *

"Some say the legend talks about events that happened over a thousand years ago, others say that they knew eons who knew the heroes of the Legend, but no matter how much time had passed or whose version it was, everyone told about the amazing flareon who kept evil away from the pack, guarding the passage through the mountains, and had the power to undo distortion," I said, as all three of us curled under a low branch of the tree to protect ourselves from the heavy rain. "It was a time when the pack didn't have regions, but at the same time it wasn't small. Rea, because that was her name, was born close before the events that eons from the far South call 'The Awakenings'. According to eeveelutions from the Heat Rocks, that was the moment when the curse spread on to the living. Though they don't really call it a curse, rather a kind of mystical power, and they consider it as a blessing. They also claim that the Heat Rocks were where the pack began. Returning to the legend, as we have the legend of grey-eyed, so they prise Rea the Bluefire... or blueflame... I'm not sure now."

"Segot hies Buszlifleime taite," noticed Serge, and hiccoughed before taking another sip from the straw hidden in his bushy tail, that definitely contained alcohol. There were a few known in Pack, ways to carry liquids, straws like these were one of them. The leafeons' invention, but it's possible for other eeveelutions to make them too, it was just harder for them and weren't as trusted like the ones made by grass-types.

"Right, so she was the Bluefire, and she got that name thanks to the unusual colour of her flame, and its power to burn up every curse. The legend says that she wasn't born with it, she was normal flareon, part of a group of eeveelutions that were interested in exploring the world outside the safe pack territory, which was much smaller than it is now. During one of the many expeditions, something went wrong, and the team returned to the pack without her, but she wasn't dead. She returned a few days later but different. Her legend somehow connects to Gray-eyed legend, like, they had met and Rea had to be his opposite. Though I need to notice that in the far Southern version, Grey-eyed is rather an evil one,"

"Pfffrrrytfryy," disturbed by Serge with something he wasn't able to produce right now. Cera gave him irritated glare closing his mouth.

"Absolutely Serge," I agreed with him, besides I hadn't the smallest idea what he meant, but seeing the happy expression on his face I guessed... something, anything that made him take I had my first drink being 15 or 14 but it was just a beer, (In Germany it's legal to drink beer at a young age, while in France it's normal that everyone drinks wine, during dinner for example) first drunk state I reached being 16(it's quite late/normal), it was a quite amazing experience XD especially when my friend who isn't so resistant to alcohol went to fight bilberries bush. another sip. "So as Rea returned to the pack, she didn't show her abilities immediately, they appeared after some time, some even claim that even her eyes started to change to blue, but not just normal blue, but shining blue, like Serge's glowing rings. She had to deal with being a freak, as no one had ever seen changes like that but the occasion strikes, Rea had a chance to become a hero and create her own legend. Eons start to disappear, dark creatures run through the shadows, fear and chaos. That's when this legend actually starts, but I wanted to say some more so you would know some background and weren't so exposed to the fact..."

"Yeah, just get on with it," Cera cut me off.

"Yyygghtr," agreed Serge shaking his head rapidly, I just hoped he won't vomit suddenly, we didn't have much space to share.

"Okay, so she kind of found the source of these dark events, it was a pokemon controlled by another mysterious force, generally these legends are full of mysterious powers without much explanation, just magic. However, Rea faced these powers and her flame appeared to be able to clear these pokemon from the curse that controlled them. She defended the pack from the first and every next wave of darkness and the current leader gave her leadership without the fight, even if she wasn't asking for it, also giving her the title Bluefire, the pack grew large, but she was the only one who could do anything against this evil force. One day she said that she wouldn't be able to protect the pack forever, that she could die or become too weak to protect the pack. She decided to face the source of these attacks, one day she went alone to the City of Fallen Dreams, and never returned. No one knows what happened to her, but eons from the Heat Rocks talk about the sacrifice, as after Rea was gone, the waves of darkness stopped."

"Oh," breathed Cera. "It's an interesting legend, I wonder if every different region has its own legend of eeveelution their praise."

Serge didn't comment, as he suddenly fell asleep flat on his muzzle.

"Interesting and worrying," breathed Cera.

"Yeah, but he is fine, I guess, it's not the first time he has fallen asleep like that" I answered, seeing that Serge was rather comfortable with the way he was lying.

"I meant the legend," Cera corrected herself. "It proves that this 'curse' isn't anything new, it was always somewhere just out of sight but existing next to us."

The darkness of the night suddenly flashed in the light, as cracked lighting split the sky and a second later thunder roared. Cera and I exchanged a single look before getting closer together and sharing a tight, encouraging hug.

Two days had passed since our sudden leaving from the meeting at the Middle, and we were close to the Heat Rocks. We should reach the passage through the mountains at noon, considering that we would keep going shortly after sunrise. So far everything was going smooth, we didn't meet anyone besides food. We hadn't time to hunt but we also didn't want to starve, luckily Serge found a den of marills so we hadn't to chase anything.

The days started to get warm, or at least weren't so cold as to make me freeze, however, at night, the water still changed into ice. The combination of night and day turned the ground into mud we couldn't escape from to the point that even Cera couldn't keep herself clean. I was proud of her that she didn't even start complaining about it yet, that was a bit of surprise for me and Serge. Maybe using psychic for everything was more exhausting than Cera thought on the first day of the walk.

Another lightning bolt lit up the sky, covered by heavy and dark clouds, in a grim light. The thunder woke up Serge, the umbreon suddenly lifting up his head, looking up, his yellow eyes blinked in the dark from half-closed eyelids as if they were illuminated in their own light before his head drooped to the side and the dark type snored, and his breath was very unfresh.

"How does he even have so much alcohol with him?" asked Cera, looking at the umbreon in a critical state.

"The whole secret lays in that he doesn't really need much," I answered also looking at umbreon. "But I hope he has much more than that with him, who knows, someday it may be even useful."

"I can put minds in a drunk state without the help of some funny liquid," said Cera, laying her head down on her paws as the storm calmed down, changing into cosy rain and thunder could be heard only from afar.

"That's... actually an amazing ability! Your possibilities are beyond any expectation," I said with excitement, making her smile, but by the way, it looked, this smile was rather to herself than to me.

Laying in our cover we were observing how rain slowly gave up and how the landscape progressively leaves its dark colours, getting sunny and bright green with first leaves on the branches, wet from the rain, reflecting sun rays, glittering in the light. The scenery still wasn't so pretty though, wet ground, already being mud after heavy raining looked literally like shit, smelled bad too.

"Last time I was away from the home, I got an idea to make a den at the swamps, in a peaceful and quiet place. I just didn't realise why swamps are so peaceful, they are just ugly and stinks," I confessed.

"Swamps often are tempting, as the escape from the crowd. From all eeveelutions, I heard only about a few that really tried to live in this environment. Hight dampness, mud and trouble with staying clean are great for developing illnesses," said Cera, looking at the forest which actually was a swamp, just looked like that because of rain. Real swamps were in a different part of the forest. "They also isolate the Pack from the world around..."

As Cera kept talking about interesting facts about swamps and their effect on the Pack, from the bush next to me slowly walked out, or rather phased through, a white leafeon, the copy of myself.

Destiny at first happily waved, then looked over me, over Cera and sleeping umbreon before raising his eyebrow in disapproving motion.

I shrugged back to him, trying to look unsure what he meant.

Keeping silence between us two and avoiding disturbing Cera talk, Destiny turned with his flank to us and lied down pretending to be very lazy.

I pointed my tongue at him for that, we weren't lazy, we just needed a moment to rest.

He pointed his white tongue back at me, then pretended running looking sporadically behind him and jumped few times in place.

I showed him that I didn't get what he meant by raising my eyebrows.

Destiny pointed one by one at me Cera and Serge and then aggressively at some direction in the forest.

" _Now!"_

"What, what was that? Did you say something?" asked suddenly Cera.

I jumped up on my paws and kicked Serge hard to wake him up, umbreon shoot up on all four with a deep hiss.

"We need to go!" I said, and Cera got up too.

"I don't sense anything worrying," said Cera and suddenly jumped back as Serge vomited just in the place we were lying before.

I angrily looked back at Destiny, though I wasn't sure if I should thank him or be angry at him. I already had adrenaline from the fear that we are in danger, I just thought about a different kind of danger.

"Thanks," I said, sarcastically to white leafeon.

"Oh, no problem. But that's because we kicked him and he stood up to fast. I rather wanted to warn you about these two psychic types walking under the cover of a dark-type," answered Destiny with his usual lack of emotions that still seemed to be a kind of funny tone.

"Oh shit, we need to flee," I said as stress returned to me, pushing Cera to run and looking back to check if Serge moved too, he did.

"Why we running?" asked loudly Cera.

"Two espeons and umbreon are approaching," I answered back.

"How do you know?"

 _Uh?_

"How do I know?" I asked Destiny who, at least for now run with us.

"You sensed them through the plant," he answered calmly.

"I sensed them with plants, you know, like a grass-type," I answered to Cera, thanking Destiny for being my grass-type now.

"And how did they find us?" asked Cera again, between breaths.

"How did they find us?" I asked, turning my head at Destiny again.

"They have a future reading espeon that used his abilities to calculate every possibility where you could go or what you might like to do and choose the most probable example of the future," explained the white leafeon with an unchanged tone. I doubted that he actually needed to breathe, so he could speak the same tone no matter if standing still or running.

"How?" I asked myself, but Destiny answered anyway.

"Being in the line of Taranis the Betrayer grants some unique abilities. Or I should rather name him, Sinar the Curser? This name was more popular, but the guy had some issue with names, as he had like a dozen of names!"

"Who!?" I shouted. "Or no! Don't say anything, later. Now find us some way!" I ordered, seeing that running straight forward soon won't be possible because of the massive foot of the mountain.

"Sure!" Destiny chirped, speeding up taking the lead and phasing right through the mountainside.

"Stupid fuck," I cursed under my breath. I hadn't missed it at all when he stayed away from me during the season of the snow. I took a quick turn in right and so did Cera and Serge behind her.

"Our passage is just ahead!" shouted Serge from behind, as the narrow snowy opening in the mountain started to appear.

We speed up to reach it quicker, but just as the ground under our paws was becoming snow, we actually slowed down, moving forward only in long strength drying leaps. Just as Serge passed the line of entry to the passage, making the whole group between two massive peaks, a loud crack echoed. Cera was the first one who spotted coming danger as the screamed, the second was Serge, who cursed and I made few more leaps forward before looked back, just to face the wall of snow coming down in the avalanche. The impact threw me flying forward at the distance of dozen of leaps before hitting the ground. I rolled a few times losing the impact in the meantime powering up my leaves making them glow in a venomous green colour, ready to cut. At the last roll, I pushed myself up, standing ready to defend myself. All would be perfect if only my leg would slip as my face meet the ground again.

Spitting out the snow, I stood up. My vision was covered by mist like snow still flying around but I managed to notice one slender quadruped creature gracefully walking in my direction with a crown like blue glow at its forehead. Toughening my leaves again I prepared to rush forward just when the distance between us be close enough.

 _Now!_

I tried to jump at the stranger eon but instead, my muzzle again was filled with snow from the ground as I fell down. My forepaws somehow got frozen and unable to move.

"Cool down," said a cold feminine voice and from the mist emerged tall and graceful glaceon with it icy crown-like growth on the forehead still glowing in icy blue.

"Oh, uh, hi, Liss," I greet now recognised ice-type with light-blue fur frozen in sharp quills, Serge's mate and the friend of mine.

The so cold but so hot glaceon looking at me from above with distinction and grace in her cool eyes was just ass tall, or maybe slightly shorter then Serge. Besides the height, her body was still as slender as an espeon's except for visible wider hips, two long teal dangles hanging from her ears, now both bind together on left side of her neck, and thin tail.

"Hello Zar," she answered warmly and gave me a quick hug. "Sorry for freezing your paws."

"No, I am sorry that I took you for someone else," I apologised back.

"Don't be, it's not for the first time when I approach some non-ice-type with limited vision. Your reaction was good and damn, you got up fast!" exclaimed Liss, giving me nudge with her cold paw.

Liss, besides her icy appearance, could seem very warm sometimes, as long as someone is at her 'good side'.

"Oh!" Liss suddenly silently whined and looked back, I followed her and saw Serge as he playfully bit her buttcheek. "I missed you too."

Time to evacuate! I thought to myself and saw the Cera who stood right behind Serge had similar though painted at her face but instead to actually evacuate, espeon meaningfully coughed.

"I don't want to interrupt you, but don't you think it's not the best moment to do this kind of stuff?" Cera asked.

"Right," giggled back Liss."Hello to you too Ceratro, long time no see."

Honestly, I hadn't heard Cera's full name for so long that it took me a while to connect it with her.

"'Cera' is enough," said Cera and stood next to me. Liss kept looking at both of us for a while and her smile kept getting wider.

"Haha, Zar my boy, you got yourself a mate?! I always believed in you! So double date it is?" cried the glaceon, rapidly pattering the snow with her front paws.

"Don't push them, they are not very far in this stuff yet," laughed Serge. "This is still a sheepish stage."

"Why did you even threw the avalanche at us?" asked Cera trying to change the topic in desperation to avoid feeling uncomfortable.

I felt uncomfortable too, but kinda liked having some view on what it could be in future. Like biting someone's butt whenever I wanted and getting a positive response.

"I... slipped," answered Liss smiling and winking but after intensive look of Cera she added. "Okay, the avalanche wasn't really what had in mind. It had to be nice and clean closing of the way behind you, but it's not possible to control snow with much precision. But still, it missed you, you just felt some splash."

"But this entrance was quite impressive," I noticed as the air was slowly getting clearer and vision better.

"You were quite impressive too, for a moment you doubted if it's really you. I don't remember you using any abilities and here, boom, some green blade-like leaves. It kind of reminds me of the absols, your tail and forehead leaf moved in a similar way," praised me back glaceon and it seemed that she wanted to pet me but was interrupted by Cera that suddenly hugged to me. "Hehe, good girl. Fight for what's yours, it might even be a good pair," laughed ice-type. Her crest on the forehead blinked in blue and the snowy mist immediately fell to the ground revealing the view of fields of dusty desolation under the thick dark cloudy sky clawed by tall ruins of abandoned buildings.

"Looks like the City of Fallen Dreams says hello," I gulped and the scar, souvenir after Sonya, painfully stung but I didn't let anyone notice.

"So that's how it looks," said Serge with thoughtfulness looking at the view. "Smaller then I imagined that."

"Smaller? It's huge!" argued Cera.

"I expected it to be something impossible to get head around but here I am and look at it, I give five on ten in my scale," judged Serge. "Covered from clouds evil place of darkness, how typical, how it suppose to scare me as dark-type? I could live here."

"You guys really see it for the first time?" asked Liss visibly confused.

"I was there once, but wait, did you saw it already?" I asked surprised.

"Like every day, living on the mountains for most of the year has these advantages that I can see what's far outside pack territory," said glaceon. "Though from mountains, it seemed to be much cleaner here. In all that dust I gonna be in Serge colours in midway."

"Do not complain, at least you won't be so visible from afar. White and blue is good in snow but outside of your biome everyone gonna spot you," smirked Cera.

"You're right! For you, it will be very helpful too, like, you don't blend in with any possible environment at all," answered back the glaceon, making me realise what relationship Liss and Cera had. Like, what was bigger, the pride of espeon or glaceon?

"I'm lucky that green melts in with ruins perfectly. Okay, so like Serge noticed, this place can look quite creepy. The city itself isn't very dangerous, as long as we avoid the main roads in the centre that once almost strangled me, there is nothing really to be afraid of" I warned, looking at three of my companies. "Besides huge evil monster underground that's trying to end the world, looks like nightmare used to suck off the energy of dark-types to power himself up."

"What! No way, only I can suck off the energy of my dark type... uh, so we are on a serious theme? Excuse me, you didn't hear anything," Liss changing the tone to colder understanding that was a warning.

"It's actually good, you will have to look after Serge then. The last dark-type that was touched by this monster went a little crazy," I said.

"I might not be so comfortable with the idea of living here any longer," clarified the umbreon, learning about Metro.

"Also," I continued turning my eyes on Cera. "What's our plan now that we've got here?"

"Oh, the plan," perplexed the espeon, looking between the dark ruins and the wall of the mountains and each of us. "I actually wasn't expecting us to reach this moment, I mean, not that fast. So... I don't really have anything planned, I may say I expected it was gonna roll something on its own. You know, the spirit of adventure, or something."

"You should leave the Middle more often Cera, being away from home doesn't mean that world's gonna take you on an adventure," said Serge, Liss nodded in agreement, and Cera lowered her ears a little.

"Oh guys, I thought I lost you!" shouted Destiny out of nowhere, walking into the middle of the group phasing through a glaceon, but the ice-type seemed to not notice that. Generally, no one reacted to the white leafeon's voice, treating him like the air.

Feeling afraid to act differently, I just stared at Destiny.

"Won't you say a word? Even hello? Uh, making me sad, I came to help here, afraid that your friends gonna take you as mad?" laughed Destiny, ironically, standing next to Liss, taking her form for a moment and trying to make a judgmental look.

"I am sorry, but you can't expect me now to know everything, I am as informed about... about... whatever we are into," the espeon answered to Serge.

"Organisation problem, I see" noticed Destiny, looking at arguing trio. "Last time it was easier. Anyway, had you ever thought about the word 'Pancake'? Like, it's a cake from a pan!"

"W-what?" I breathed in silence, getting confused.

"Oh, sorry, it's Sonya's thought, it's a bit messed up when I started to be her destiny too, it's hard to be in the destiny for two you know. I just hope you won't drag these three into it too, or at least not so intensive to share me with them," Destiny tried to explain himself, turning this time into Cera, making me realise how noticeably smaller espeon is from glaceon, booty biting might not be so satisfying after all.

 _Damn Zar, you're so bad for her. They are not even the same age, there is still hope, and even if not, it's still much better than most._

"Anyway, if you find it necessary to support your mate in this raging discussion next to you, I would suggest you visit Metro. It might kill you, but last time you survived and even saved a friend, so why should it be different now?" said Destiny, with a short smile and trotted in the city centre direction melting with the air.

"Guys!" I shouted to the trio of eons, as their arguing voices became louder. "We have to go this way!" I pointed to the same way Destiny went.

"Why?" asked Liss, showing the lack of confidence in the sudden decision.

"Because... it's... it's adventure spirit calling," I joked, and blinked, but didn't see a change of doubtful expression in any eeveelution's face. "Hey, it's just a proposition, a good feeling, I guess," I added, less convinced. For my luck, Serge came with the rescue.

"Then it looks like we have to go this way, if adventure calls, there is no other option," he said joking, but following. Cera and Liss looked at each other, pointing their ears up, but finally followed in Serge's paw steps. We had a long way before reaching the centre of the city, before us were flat fields of dust.

They weren't completely empty, there were a few rusted 'cars', 'busses', rare cinders of 'houses' and many other objects Sonya once named, any of them were tall enough or complete enough to disturb the emptiness of the environment.

Observing the scenery, I noticed that what was once 'houses' were somehow lined alongside the slightly twisted but still best to walk stripes of the ground.

Interesting, did they notice it or made it look like this by accident? Or maybe first they build their high den and later paths appeared by hundred of paws tamping down the ground and grass. We were doing it like that in the Middle, but we never walked so much to create something as hard as this concrete. Though, I thought it was actually good as walking on something so hard and cold couldn't be comfortable for everyone, not to mentions how bad my grass-type sense felt, so isolated from nature. Only Serge seemed to not care at all, he was curiously watching everything new around, but with his tail and ears set casually and rings with a usual stable blue glow, he was showing his good mood. Cera looked as complete opposition to the dark-type, besides being psychic-type she walked very carefully, hesitantly. She visibly didn't want to be here at all and we just entered the urban part of the city, or what was left from it, the centre was still far ahead.

Liss was something between the umbreon and espeon. The ice-type wasn't showing that she dislikes this place, but also wasn't showing anything toward it. Actually, glaceon wasn't showing much emotion at all, even if Liss was one of the very expressive glaceons or ice-types in generally. She was also the first to speak up again.

"I need to be honest, from close it looks very different then from the peak of the mountains," she clarified, making Cera jump a little. "Oh, I scared you?"

"I kind of wasn't here for the moment," the espeon tried to explain herself.

"What are you thinking about then?" Liss asked immediately, lining up with Cera. "I hope you are not mad for the few words I said earlier to provoke you."

"No, I am not. I was just... I don't know... there is something interesting about this place at the psychic level, amazing, but also scary," answered Cera, being slightly assertive to the unexpected glaceon approach.

"Like what?" Liss continued.

"Like... uh, like...," espeon wondered about the answer. "I don't think you can understand it, being ice-type."

"We may seem like part ice, but my mind isn't frozen, if you explain I might have at least some idea of what you felt," said calmly Liss and Cera blushed.

"It's not what I meant! I..."

"Blah blah blah, save it" Liss cut the trying to apologise espeon. "Go on with what you sensed, I am interested in this stuff. Ice abilities don't connect with anything more than frozen things, which is cool," the ice-type made a pause, visibly waiting for something. "Oh come one, other glaceons always liked puns like these, don't be such a downer and chill," another pause. "Okay, this one actually was bad. I'll quit it, but don't say later that I wasn't trying to break the ice."

"I think that this environment is a bit depressing and jokes aren't really working this out," Serge spoke up from behind. Besides, I had the same opinion, a small smile formed on my mouth, unnoticeable for the rest of the group that followed me.

"Yes, it's bloodcurdling," agreed Liss, and then returned her attention back to Cera. "So returning to what I actually wanted to say a moment before some random thought disturbed me. I am interested in this as ice-type abilities are just about playing with temperature and your environment, mainly water in the air, or normal water. But it's not connected with some minds and souls or generally anything deeper, maybe only some high velocity can be a bit deeper and heartbreaking or jaw-dropping. So, what did you feel?"

"Did you notice that you didn't quit these puns at all?" hinted the espeon.

"I'm gonna continue if you are still delaying with the answer," threatened the glaceon.

"Okay," breathed Cera and harrumphed. "Since you don't have anything to compare it I gonna try to say it simply, so don't try to support any theory of how psychic might work if it's the reason why it interests you. So, as we, all four, walk here together, everyone emits some appearance in psychic. You know, emotions and thoughts."

"And memories?" asked glaceon.

"Not really, memories are..., of well,"Cera looked at me for the moment. "Yes Zar, I sensed that. You gonna survive hearing it once again," Cera noticed my 'oh, and again we go in that' thought.

"I just hope we won't have to repeat everything once again about your type, it's amazing but..." I tried to answer, but Cera disturbed me softly touching my mind by psychic and I lost the word I just had to say.

"So memories are not, let's say 'flying around' like the thought you just created, which I hear as silent whispers, to get to memories I need to direct at you some psychic force. Not much, but still, the more precious to your memory, the more I have to work to get to it," explained Cera.

"I wish I had something like that, I finally would be sure that my umbreon do so late at nights," coaxed glaceon looking back at Serge and then turning to me. "But from the other paw, you are quite unlucky Zar."

"Zar doesn't have to worry about anything! I tolerate everybody's privacy," announced Cera and added. "Well, maybe besides now as by mistake I connected our minds but still, besides few times I try to keep unused. You might notice it, Zar, that for a while we hadn't shared dreams or views. But back about what is so amazing at this place. So, besides the four of us, there is a kind of different appearances appearing around. Like, these are not some pokemon or generally anything alive. These appearances are incomplete, they are here but their emotions weak and unreadable, they don't generate thought or have memory. Like some shadows of minds without many shapes. They appear and disappear without much order. It is something similar to what it seems like when some astral being for a moment leave the body but here is on a much higher level.


	23. Ch 23 The Edge of the Dream

A light drizzle cooled down the air under the heavy dark clouds, making fur slightly moist on the outer layer, and making dust easily stick to paws, but the weather didn't manage to disturb the silence and the way how the whole city seemed to be frozen in time.

Slowly closing into the city centre, and the entrance to Metro, my group, while keeping tight formation, lost the willingness to talk somewhere between the ruins. I found pawprints of my last visit here, it looked like the season of snow somehow missed this place and even the wind hadn't made its way in these regions. Others also noticed my tracks and Serge even tried to smell them, but sneezed because of the dust, blowing it, leaving the sight that he sneezed in this place forever.

How could Sonya say that this was a shortcut used by more pokemon? Literally, there were no markings for anyone different to walking through here. Well, besides her, as she seemed to know it quite well, even before it all turned to ashes. Damn, this place looks as if it had been dead for over a hundred years! Maybe she just thought that up and didn't really know what this city looked like, after all, she wasn't old enough to not only be born here, but also to remember anything.

My train of thought was disturbed by Cera's quiet hiss as she noticed dried up drops of blood painted alongside the pawprints in the dust, informing me that we were close to the place where I got my scar and where Sonya suddenly attacked me.

"Is it blood?" she asked taking a closer look.

"Yeah, it is, but do not worry, I am fine now," I answered, noticing a few other marks of the fight, jumps, leaps, rolls, claws, prints of small paws next to wider ones.

"What's over there," suddenly questioned Liss, and walked to the exit of the street, to the large opening where whole ground covered was in one flat layer of melted glass. Serge, following Liss and standing right next to her, looked back at me questioningly.

Cera and I also walked at the edge of the place where on the other side, right behind the corner was the stairs to the grand eye of Metro. Following two more pair of eyes on me, waiting for an explanation, I shrugged.

"I saw it last time I was here," I started looking at the glass, wondering if I will notice someone on another side again. "but I have no idea what it is, besides that it is glass."

All three other eons breathed in disappointed.

"Looks like kind of ice, though," said glaceon.

"Emits dark energy," added Serge.

"My psychic go crazy whenever I try to focus it on it, as if it was tearing apart every accumulated energy," she shared her experience psychic-type.

"Why'd you even asked me if you can sense it?" I wondered, looking at them.

"I asked you and I just said that looks like ice, it's not even close to the complex analysis," assumed Liss. "Amongst glaceons, we used to say that those who ask are lost less often. So I asked."

"Can we step on it?" interrupted umbreon, already keeping his paw above the glass.

"Sure," I said, and Serge put his paw on the glass. His blue rings flashed brightly in blue light for the moment when he lifted his paw again.

"Oh," he breathed heavily. "That's some really strong shit. This thing holds so much dark energy in itself that I feel that I could kill someone with a sneeze."

"Let me try!" exclaimed Liss, jumping on the glassy ground too, the three of us froze for a moment, seeing this act of thoughtlessness, but the glaceon just turned her head back to us and said with disappointment. "I don't feel anything."

"Guess it's some source of dark-type energy, it won't work with ice-type. It may explain why this place is always so covered in darkness and why any espeon in the Pack couldn't reach it psychically," summed up Cera. "But I am not sure if I should try to stand on it, psychic and dark type energy don't work well together."

"I think that I should avoid it too," agreed the umbreon. "Zar and Liss seem to be neutral for it, but for me, it's too powerful to stand."

"Okay, I guess you can walk around on the edges," I suggested, standing on the glass, trying to check if it's making me feel anything different, but just like before, besides the cold under my paws, I didn't feel different. Only when I looked at my friends I saw on their faces that something was off. I focused on myself once again, but again felt very usually.

"What is it?" I asked them.

"You're glowing," said slowly Cera.

"I am? Do you mean the white parts of my leaves? Yes, it happens sometimes, but it's not anything new, is it?" I said back, not being slightly confused as to why was it important right now to look at me the way they were now, Serge, too, glowed and no one really cared.

"Not only that, you glow in light everywhere," added Liss, indicated me to look down, so I did. Before my eyes in the reflection was an entirely white leafeon, I looked like Destiny again. Next to white me, I also saw heads of all three of my companions looking down with me into the mirror.

"Uh, well, it might work on me in some way too, then," I said, and looked up, but to my surprise, I didn't see any eons there.

"Oh shit, how'd you get in there Zar?!" shouted Cera, or rather her reflection from under my paw. "He is on the other side of the mirror!"

"What happened?! Take me back!" I panicked, scratching the glass, but it was too hard to even leave a mark on, but as I scratched the reflections of Cera, Serge and Liss were slowly fading away and I couldn't even hear what they were screaming.

"No, no, no!" I shouted, looking around, as I was completely alone now.

I jumped, hearing shuffling sound from my left, I prepared my leaves to cut, but all that I saw was the dust slowly rising from the ground and flying in the air. At first, only some small clouds of dust lifted themselves into the air without even the slightest wind, but a moment later all dust from the place, streets and the whole city started to rise. Some of the grain started to piece together forming larger objects, bricks, ropes, clothes, bones and all different stuff I couldn't get my mind around now. Bones and skulls started to connect themselves into different kind of creatures and the rest of the dust gave them muscles eyes and skin. Bricks were slowly complete the ruined building of the city and the glassy layer on the ground started to crack and fly away to cover up the rising building.

I started to hear noises, talking, smells, many different smells and see hundreds of colours blinking everywhere. A moment later I found myself in the centre of a very busy place, with thousands of humans and pokemon walking in every possible direction, in complete chaos.

I yelped in pain when one of the sky-reaching legs stomped on my paw and then I realised that I gonna be trampled down if I stay here. It wasn't even a second when a second foot almost stomped at me if I would dodge in time. Hissing, I started a chaotic dance between thousands of pair of legs yelping whenever I didn't manage to dodge in time. Then somewhere between all these limbs, I notice some opening, I immediately leapt forward it escaping dangerous feet.

I didn't manage to even take a breath of relief when a loud honk roared next to me, turning my head in direction of the sound I saw fully working and approaching at high speed 'car'. There was no time to move so I just screamed in panic seeing my growing reflection in the metallic front of the machine.

A moment before I was hit, something grabbed the back of my neck and strongly pulled and the car passed right next to me.

Finding myself high above the ground, I looked around to find who keeps me so high off the ground. My eyes meet the face of a familiar looking girl with complete white long hairs, the same I saw while walking with Sonya through the place covered in glass, just now she had clothes.

"Hello, you seem lost," she greeted smiling. "You need to have a very bad owner if you weren't taught to not cross the street while the light is red. Anyway, I am Aria and this is my friend Sonya! Nice to meet you from both of us."

Just now, I noticed that next to Aria's legs stood one, white absol.

"Hello there cutie," greeted Sonya, smiling, but it wasn't the smile I saw earlier, this one was... honest.

When the human put me back on the ground, I also noticed that Sonya was much shorter than before, she was my height, or even a little shorter.

"Sonya? What are you doing here? Who is she? What's going on? Why are you small?" I asked confused.

"Eh? I have a strong feeling that you may have confused me with somebody else," answered Sonya, unsure."But Aria is my human if you want to know and I am her fluffy 'cuddler'" The absol giggled.

Could it really be a different absol? With the same name? The idea sounded rather very unlikely. She was even very similar, just kind of... less mature, or maybe it was because I had never seen Sonya happy and the one before me was smiling without a break.

"Oh, green light, now we goin'," said the dark type, and moved forward together with the whole mass of humans and pokemon through the 'street'. "See ya."

Seeing another sea of legs rushing in my direction I rushed and caught up back to the walking away Sonya and her white-haired human.

"Eheh, it's kind of uncomfortable when someone walks in the same direction after saying goodbye," laughed Sonya shakily, as she saw me walking next to her. She cleared her throat. "So..., where are you going?"

"I," I looked around trying to find where I mighty would be going, but it appeared that I was too small for this environment to see anything more than others legs. Yet I had to say the truth, after all, dark-type can sense the false besides I hadn't any direction. "I'm going to meet my friends... my name is Zar anyway."

"Nice name, unusual, like I never heard anyone named Zar. Sounds wild, foreign, is your master an outsider?" asked the absol, visibly interested.

"An outsider?" I repeated, unsure, also wondering what master she had in mind, practically it was Tera right now, as she was teaching me things, but I didn't remember her saying anything about being an outsider.

"Excuse me using the city slang, with an outsider we mean those born in another part of the world then here!" explained Sonya enthusiastically. "But that actually answered my question anyway, though it's weird they imported a grass type here, they normally collect dark types, but who knows, maybe soon there will be more energy in use than just dark energy. Besides, it doesn't make much sense."

"I don't understand," I murmured, but now I was a bit more sure that was the same, but yet different Sonya, at least this one was saying things I couldn't understand, and was saying 'they', besides, I completely didn't know 'who'.

"Oh well, maybe your human doesn't share as much as mine shares. Anyway, do you know where are you?" she asked.

"The City of the Broken Dream?" I guessed.

Sonya stopped for a moment rising the air brow and looking at me weirdly.

"Ehm, no, not really. The New Era City, that's its name," the absol corrected me, being slightly confused at my answer. "The greatest place to live, on planet Earth."

"Planet?"

"You know, the globe we live on, a huge round rock that flies through space around another round... uhm, I forgot if the Sun is a rock too or not, but around the round Sun," tried to explain Sonya, yet I felt we were further and further from any explanation. "You really don't know much about the world."

Absol stopped for a moment taking a deep breath and closing her eyes in what it seemed to be a pleasure, and then hurried back to her human leg and bit her gently.

"Sonya, again? You'll turn fat if you will keep wanting something every time we are passing this street," Sonya's human Aria answered to the bite, but the absol didn't give up yet. "Okay, okay, but for the last time." Aria walked to the narrow window of the small building and a moment later Sonya was happily walking with a slice of tasty piece meat.

"So that's the shop you were telling me about," I noticed, remaining myself how Sonya was memorising the ruins city.

"Was I?" asked Sonya, through closed teeth.

"Kind of," I answered and recognised the street we were walking, we were closing to the moving stairs going underground, but this time the stair were moving without Sonya doing anything to them, transporting masses of creatures up and down.

"Are you going with us to the metro? We drive the blue line," questioned absol, seeing me looking at the entrance.

"Sure. Where did your mean go?" surprised, I noticed her mouth was empty and I just looked away from her for a single moment.

"In my stomach," she said and I opened my eyes wide trying to recall if the slice was really as big as my memory was telling me now.

The stairs took us underground, which appeared to be different than in my memory too. The walls weren't overgrown by flesh with thick pulsing veins supporting many different organs attached to it. Instead, the wall was made of slick white material with numerous grey hexagons, small hidden light kept the whole station illuminated. In the place where last time Metro has its large eye, was large black crystal, slowly rotating and half transparent seemed to pulsate with waves that felt similarly to these I could feel standing close to the dark-types abilities.

"Looks amazing every time I see it," said Sonya, looking at the crystal too. "That's the 'engine'. Thanks to it the metro has power and trains can move," she said, thereupon she formed a small ball of darkness before her mouths and pushed it gently toward the crystal. The ball got absorbed and structure flashed slightly. "That would be for the ticket."

"You keep it running?" I asked, but she shook her head.

"Everyone run it, you might not notice it yet but every pokemon is a dark type here and everything runs on our power," said the dark type, sitting down as we waited for the train. "That's why I don't really know why are you here. I guess your master took you with him here just a companion."

"Why I am here?" I repeated questionnaire, did my master take me here really only as a companion?

Wait, what master? I got here by phasing through the glass! This city is in ruin, there is no life in it, everyone who lived here is dead now and their bones lie in the room a few steps from here! But Sonya is here too!

"Sonya, did you die? Back then when we went a different way, did you end up with the rest of the city?" I asked suddenly. The absol looked at me without blinking for a long time, she kept looking and looking.

And looking.

"I really, really think you still mistake me with someone else." said the absol very slowly and very carefully. "But you can still stick around if you want to! Just..., just don't make it creepy with someone dying."

An increasingly loud scratch resounded through the metro station, announcing the arrival of the train that soon appeared, with two lights shining in the dark tunnel. Its front passed next to us at high speed, but the train was visibly slowing down, and, after a moment, completely stopped. The station was already crowded, but when the train doors opened another wave of creatures overflowed the underground platform.

"Come," shouted Sonya, trying to outshout the noise of the now larger in number crowd. Walking right behind her and next to her human, we walked aboard, right before the automatic doors closed and the train started to accelerate, leaving the lights of the station behind, but after a moment there was a now much larger underground room behind the window. The same one I woke up being buried under bones. Now it was clean and full several levels of tracks and trains, cranes and large round tanks and even more of the levitating black crystals.

"And what is this place?" I asked, mesmerised by the level of how complicated this place was, but the room behind the window disappeared again as we got into another dark tunnel.

"That was the metro's depot, they repair and storage stuff here, not only trains but also trams and other vehicles from the city, just as whole this place is awesome that the deeper levels of this place should be rather avoided," the absol made a small pause as if wondering if she didn't say anything wrong and then continued. "The concentration of dark energy can be sometimes too dense and create something called an anomaly. Touched by anomaly usually, end up ill. Sometimes you just feel bad for a few days but in a worse case, you can fall into some kind of dream that you can't wake up. But no one normally just walks there, so it happens very rarely!"

"Wow, really!?" I asked surprised, seeing similarities with what Serge described and what dark dream Vion was using in the pack. "Do you know anything more about it?"

Sonya hesitates with the answer considering the answer, then looked up at her human that seemed to be busy with touching some flat metallic device in her hand and then looked back at me.

"I don't know if I should, it's a small issue and you don't live in the city," said Sonya, trying to escape the question but it only motivates me more.

"Please, it's not the problem of the city, it happens outside of it too, you were wondering what I am doing here, I am looking for answers if you know anything about this dark dream, I need to know it," I said honestly.

"Uhm," hummed Sonya, looking up at her human again that still wasn't giving us any attention. "Well," she breathed. "So, generally Aria and I work with these anomalies, but not directly, we kind of doing research of how to control dark-type energy better than we do now. Not like a scientist, we don't do some electrical or chemical stuff, more like hobbyist psychologist aka discoverers. We usually talk or look at these anomalies and say what we noticed to someone more intelligent, but I have some of my own theory of about this dark dream. Just keep it as a secret."

"Okay, I will keep it," I said a bit too fast, but it appeared that this Sonya wasn't as careful as the one I knew, maybe it was because of her younger age. If I thought about it, when I was younger I would also say most of my secrets to a stranger that was friendly to me for most of the day, guess that just young naivety, though on the other paw, I also said a lot to this Sonya so I guess I am naivety too.

"So," started the dark type with enthusiasm. "the dark dream isn't really a dream, it just looks like it to others. The dreaming one is half aware of what is happening to them. Like, they could remember being stung or remember the smell of the hospital. The dark dream also doesn't mean that dreaming one will be peacefully laying in one place, they actually can move, fight, talk. Some off them even could behave normally, for example, appear in the morning at work and normally work."

"So how anyone noticed they are in a dream?" I asked, wondering if the pack we left so quickly, just function normally and if there is any difference of being or not being at the dream.

"Anomalies, these that are in the dark dream spread anomalies, possess powers they shouldn't have, describe things they had never seen and tries to avoid me and Aria. They also fight very good and can surprise you in many ways, like phasing through some materials or making simple abilities unnaturally powerful, generally, very random stuff is happening, lack of rules in that makes it so hard find a solution."

"You said it likes to spread," I reminded.

"Oh, yes. It's because a month ago we didn't have any of these anomalies, until one day someone found a weird eevee in the sewage system. I guess it was an eevee, it's not so obvious because after a few amazing news about this pokemon everyone stopped writing about him, or her. I guess it was the first anomaly because later these troubles started and were getting more intense with every day. So I think that one anomaly tries to make another."

"Okay, let's go back to the dream stuff, is it possible to wake somebody up?" I asked, reminding myself about the main problem Serge talked about.

"Well, it depends," said Sonya lengthy. "Some seem to be happy with their unreal state and then we can't bring them back, also the harder we try the further from reality the seems to be. A few of the pokemon and humans woke up, though rather thanks to themselves rather than our attempts, but they never 'fully' returned, haunted by nightmares, they screamed about calling from beyond, oh, they also often were describing what they saw, long powerful wings made of black and red shadows spreading wide anded with long talons."

"Huh? Like... like, wings used to fly?" I asked, having trouble to imagine what she described.

"Maybe, I dunno. I heard the only description, never saw it with my eyes, or any eyes in general as also we weren't lucky to wake up someone with drawing skill to show us what he dreamed about, but I guess it can be caused that those who draw don't wander through the tunnels of the metro and just stay home and, well, draw," answered Sonya, shrugging and her knitted brows or rather muscles that were in charge of brows as the face of the absol was nothing more dark-blue skin, or maybe eyebrows were hidden under this cap of fur on her forehead? It was always the problem with Sonya, no ears to declare the mood, tail that was always standing still and I could only guess her mood or how she felt. Completely different culture then eeveelutions, but why I was so quick to judge, anyone is like us, it's okay when we slightly deceive.

"So you just talked to them and learned so much about this dark dream?" I questioned, getting a feeling that all I was doing was asking and asking her. I hoped she didn't see this that way.

"Mostly, some of it is just my hypothesis, and Aria's wondering as she often tries to talk with me about it, but humans don't understand a word we are saying so it mostly her talking and me turning my head left or right, doing various facial expressions, shaking as 'yes' or 'no' or yawning when I had enough," confessed absol looking up her human, Aria looked at her too and smiled before returning her attention to her piece of metal and glass in her hand proving she was completely obvious to every our word. Aria eventually bend a little and patted Sonya's head, for a moment it seemed she was considering patting me too, but for her luck, she abandoned this idea and returned her hand.

"I see you two came along, besides, I have no idea what you discuss about," said the human, and suddenly her in white light. The flash wasn't longer than a blink of the eye but was enough for me to jump back at the distance that seemed to be safe.

"It's just... a camera, she made a picture," said apologetically Sonya looking slightly embarrassment. "Probably for some social media."

"First Sonya's friend," murmured under her breath, Aria tapping the object in her hand as it exhaled silent 'bing' sound.

I looked sceptical on Sonya, unsure if the 'bing' meant anything but instead of the answer, I saw a new shade of blue on dark type's face.

"Uhm, well, we have a nice weather today, quite sunny and all," said the absol sheepishly. "Generally how much longer are we going to drive this metro? It feels as if it was much longer then five minutes ride."

"It's amazing it's even moving," I said under my breath, considering the city was in total ruin last time I was in those tunnels. I wondered if Destiny was here too or if he stayed at... actually where? At real realm? In theory, yes, but in practice, this place didn't felt less real than... this where this city was ruined. Something was saying to me that maybe, but not for sure, I was in the past. The idea was crazy, but I couldn't ignore it forever.

Being honest with myself, and considering for a moment it was really the past, I had a different picture of Sonya then domestic furball to hug and pet that kept making cute faces to amuse her owner to get a slice of meat. But the other, more probable idea was that I blacked out and am dreaming. My head never was a place of the smartest, ideas so the scenery would even fit. Anyway, I would refer learn what was going on as every idea what it could be kept making me feel uncomfortable.

"That's a good hint, we are not moving," noticed the absol, looking through the window while standing up on the rare legs and exclaimed pitiful whimper to get the attention of her white-headed human.

Aria looked at Sonya and then behind the window, frowning.

"We are not moving," she said, confusing me a little as it was already said. Another human next to her hearing it looked away from his piece of meal in his hand, much larger then Aria's one and also repeated 'we are not moving', the situation repeated until everyone in the train know that we were not moving, in the meanwhile making me question their intelligence. If we would be informed ourselves in the pack, half of us would die from potential danger before the realisation of the problem. Quickly after all the humans realised they are not moving most of them returned to tap their objects in hands and those who hadn't, started to nervously look around.

"So," I started seeing nobody making any attempts that could solve the problem. "Won't any of them make us move again?" I asked Sonya.

"They probably call for help or they will be late somewhere," answered peacefully Sonya. "I rather doubt we have engineer here, they are quite rare."

"Engineer?" I questioned showing I didn't understand.

"Person that knows the technical stuff, they build and repair things, depends on the specialisation," explained Sonya, as if it was something completely obvious.

"But isn't this train and metro build by humans? Why can't humans fix it and need some engineer?" I asked once again, still missing the point.

"Engineers are humans too! But not every human is an engineer or someone similar to deal with repairing," the absol tried to explain once again. "Look, they all get some education, it usually takes most of their lives, but only a few of them are really useful."

"Shouldn't all of them be useful?" I wondered.

"I guess they would like to be, it just all about preferences and dreams. Some people chose something very useless because they love it... or just can't do anything different," said Sonya sadly, looking up at Aria.

"Oh, so we wait?" I stated, rather than asked.

"Yes, we wait," affirmed the younger, white-furred dark type and sat down on her human's foot, waiting. After a moment of silence, she even started to hum silently 'Always had high, high hopes. Had to have high, high hopes for a living...' to an unknown rhythm, anyway, it wasn't anything eons used to sing, even drunk eons or even drunk-like-Serge eons, if they were still able to sing.

I didn't really want to just wait, but if it was the must, then I had to wait. Besides, I quickly found myself some object to focus my interest. What these humans were taping so passionately?

Jumping up on one of the seats I impatiently got some nervous stares at me, I thought they won't notice anything being busy. Anyway, without any shame, I jumped even higher to find myself at the human shoulder like height. Looking down on the closest human's object of my interest I noticed that from the other side this thing had actually light and things displayed by this light. I would may understand more of it if I only could read.

"I wanna try," I decided, looking at some device in my leap range and jumped bringing owner's device to the ground, but its flat sides appeared to be too slippery and the device escaped my grit and landed with a force on the floor. The second side of it wasn't displaying thing on it but had one big crack.

The human whose device I decided to borrow blinked twice looking at me before he stood up from his seat and raised a hand to his head.

"You broke my phone," he realised, picking up the 'phone' from the ground examining the 'broke'. I could observe how his head was slowly getting a red building up the anger. "Whose pokemon is that?!"

"Stop screaming," I said back to now red-skinned human. "Could you repair it, or are you an 'engineer'?

I could see how Sonya was looking at me with wide open eyes and surprised face expression, similar to the one her owner had.

"You don't even hear a sorry," noticed the broken device owner. "Who is your owner? If he is not here you have to lead me to him!" The human said and pushed some button next to the seat that made the door open. "Oh, I forgot we are somewhere in the tunnel," said the human, as behind the doors appeared the dark wall of the metro's tunnel instead of the station.

I smiled at the opened door and jumped out of the train. The environment looked different than before but I had a feeling I had strong feelings I was here before. I was walking here before and even found the train wagon with still working lights.

Sonya jumped out of the train behind me.

"Wait! You can't go into the metro on your own!" she shouted a little panicked, trying to catch up to me.

"Okay, so come with me!" I shouted back walking away from the train.

"Wait! Sonya! Don't go!" called Aria, also leaving the train and following Sonya's steps.

* * *

AN. Sorry for another long break, for now, I can't promise you any regular updates, or more regular than what I do since last two months, anyway, I hope you enjoy at least a little.


	24. Ch24 'High Hopes'

Ch24 High Hopes

* * *

"Hey! Wait! You can't just run around!" shouted Aria trying to catch up Sonya, who was trying to catch up to me. "What if the power returns? We will be rolled over! It's stupid! Sonya stop right now!"

Besides, our train was already lost behind dozens of turns and there wasn't much sense in returning to it, at the command, absol stopped and looked back. I stopped too, not because I cared for the command, but I wasn't sure they would be able to find the exit, after all, Aria wasn't the 'engineer' to build the metro and the same to know these tunnels. While I was recognising some walls, though without red pulsing flesh and massive tentacle-like limbs swinging around these tunnels looked different. Yet, so far lost didn't feel lost.

Aria approached her absol and put a hand on her head.

"What came into your mind to run like that," she said petting her, then looked at me. "And where do you think you are going? If not for the unusual white on your leaves I would have completely lost you. We are going back."

I answered by shaking my head in protest and pat the ground under me showing that I want her to follow me. Aria looked at me surprised and her pale head changed to a little red.

"Me to you? Instead of you to me?" she asked unhappily from the idea, but stayed calm. "You are kind of lost here, but I didn't know you are 'that' lost. I am human, you are pokemon, I am here to decide."

Again, I patted the ground the same way I did a moment ago.

'No, no way, absolutely no. What kind of behaviour is even that, where you learn to do that? Whoever owns you, you are allowed too much," Aria shook her head and raised her hand to her forehead. "What am I even doing? I wanted to go back to the home and watch new Game of Thorns before any spoilers hit me and I am arguing with some leafy eevee. Enough, Sonya, we are going back to the train." Decided the human and walked away in the opposite direction, she didn't manage to get far away. Her steps were still in my range of hearing when she noticeably slowed down until she stopped.

"Sonya, uhm, you are a dark-type after all, can you see which way we should go?" Aria whispered to her pet. Sonya, probably used to her human being obvious to anything she said, didn't answer aloud but a silent 'fuck' made me convinced that the answer was negative. "You know that you've forced me into a very embarrassing situation?" she whispered again, completely oblivious that the silence of the tunnels and the echo made her voice wander a long way through the dark of the metro. Sonya again needed to answer her by body language or facial expression as I didn't hear anything. I wondered if it was how she was answering her every day, if yes, then Sonya had more use to her mouth to eat then to speak. Now I also could understand why she was so willing to speak with me when she just met me, without anyone to talk to, really talk, everyone who could speak back was worth spending time with.

I heard as three pairs of legs were coming to my direction before in the dark, I saw the absol and sharing the same hair colour of her hair and some of the facial features, her human. Good that Aria didn't also copy the absol's the blade-like horn to her own appearance, besides the smaller one Sonya had wasn't looking very dangerous, more like the part of appearance than a real weapon. Now in the dark, it wasn't so visible, but when some light shined I could notice that Aria's hair was blond at the very base of the bristle. Thought, back when I was walking through the ruined city I saw her in her with white hairs, and without all these useless materials on her body. I think Sonya once mentioned these are clothes and these are quite common in human use, besides baths.

"Leafeon?" asked Aria standing, more or less where she stood before. A moment later she managed to notice me still sitting here. "I guess that only you, from the three of us, know the way. Seeing you still sitting here I also guess you knew that we won't go far away. Okay, could you save me the talk and just lead us to the exit?!

"Please," added quietly Sonya staying behind Aria's slender leg.

"Sure," I said back and stood up. Aria and Sonya followed me but kept some distance, which was short anyway, the darkness of the underground didn't allow to see each other from afar.

We walked in silence, Aria kept quiet probably because she didn't like me while I remembered she couldn't understand me anyway. Sonya was visibly nervous and walked close to the human side, she behaved like that since Aria shouted at her. At first, I found it amusing, Sonya, the mighty winged absol able to threaten with death without a blink of the eye, now being so emotional just because Aria raised the voice at her. However, on second thought, it reminded me of how I was not so long ago, walking to my clearing, caring for the few plants to keep them green and getting irritated when someone stomped on them. If it really was the past, then what road Sonya needed to face to turn from livid fluffy pillow to cold deadly hunter wandering through the world alone.

Oh, well, stupid question, I literally saw the city in the ruin, the place where she used to live. Whatever nightmare destroyed her home needed to haunt her ever after changing her into the absol she became and was when I met her for the first time, when she had to steal the Light from the grass-types in this specific forest.

However, something wasn't working here, if I was in the past now and met Sonya, then Sonya should recognise me when we saw each other for the first time. A leafeon with white leaves and a scar on their head were very popular, was my guess.

Oh, wait, I didn't have the scar back then. It was almost a moment after I almost drowned in the river, when I found a 'mature' Sonya, back then known as a mushy-like smelly gathering of white fluff, or Agaar. Also, shouldn't I know Sonya before our actual first meeting, too? Which was long before I was even born, as even my parents didn't live in times when the city was anything more than cinders?

It hadn't much sense, that's why I, against suggestive ideas, wasn't convinced it was the past.

But if not, then how could I see this city alive? An illusion?

I had Serge right next to me, any illusion wouldn't be so strong next to the dark type and for sure wouldn't be able to stand for so long.

At the other paw, was it the first time when I found myself in a similar yet different world out of nowhere? The dark pond in the scary forest of 'specific' climate and strange for able to persuade me to see my eeveelutions friends in different places then they really were. There I phased to the other side of the reflection too.

Note to myself, avoid suspicious surfaces in the future. It may be interesting to see what's on the other side, but I prefer my own world. Though still, last time was much more scary and weird then it was now, maybe I was just getting better at it.

I smiled at the thought, but honestly prefer to avoid any attempts to master this strange repeating coincidence. How did I escape it last time? I met some strange eeveelution-like creature, but surely not a full eeveelution. Some mix between all types eevee could evolve, with a slight dominance of jolteon and voice like cracking sparkles. Whoever had a voice like that, had to have agonising pain in his throat every time he had to say something. I could remember he did something with psychic and then I panicked and got hysterical and in the blink of an eye, I was back at the black underground pond bank being chased by some shadowy serpentine creature.

Wow, I remember a lot, I was proud of myself. If I would be able to remember when Cera's birthday was as well as I could remember these specific events, my life would be much less stressful. Didn't I miss the last one while I was 'lost'? Damn, I never could remember if it was five days after the first day of storms season or, five days before the season of the sun. Maybe it would be saved to say best wishes on the occasion of the close just to be sure. Throughout if it already happens and she forgets I forget then giving her wishes I would remind her I forgot. Not that she would really mind, she never seemed to really mind but who knew, maybe it was important for her. You would never know what's important to female, one would like to have some rare stone or gem, other some love and even other just some sweet thing. There was no rule.

What if females had so many troubles with us, males, as we have with them. I smirked at the thought. No, it's not possible. For sure they have some problems to face, like appearance, then they have to approach and face this fear of rejection, fear so strong that even now when I knew Cera wants to be with me, this fear won't fade away.

Wonderful, all I could see was the darkness of the metro and the walls a moment before I bumped into them and my thought wandered so far away from this place and focused on the females, mainly Cera. I knew sex was a cool thing, kind of what everyone was trying to achieve sooner or later, and seemed to be a normal thing to think for leafeon at a young age like mine. However, at the moment like these, I would really appreciate that my brain would focus on the more important currently things. Like, reproduce in times of such crisis seemed like quite an important theme too, but it wasn't really the best moment for it, especially while from all options I only had 'immature' Sonya.

Fuck me for thoughts like that, from where these ideas were even coming from and why so sudden? Was it because of the lack of private space... okay, enough, I had to deal with guiding Aria and Sonya through the metro, not consider me and Cera getting together problem... or it wasn't really a problem, just a series of events. After all, I was in a place where I shouldn't allow myself to relax, I'm supposed to stay focused.

The tunnel behind the corner was much brighter and as it appeared a moment later on the tracks stood another train blinding us with its front lights.

"I wonder. If there is no power then why do all the lights still work?" I threw the question to my two followers.

Aria, who covered her eyes from the light didn't answer me obviously, and Sonya stayed silent too, and when I started to think I got ignored, the dark type finally answered.

"These are 'forever lights', unless you break them, they will shine. They don't need another source of energy then this they got during production," explained Sonya and added. "They won't last forever as the name can suggest, but very long."

"They do nice light, taste almost like sun, just much colder, like moonshine," I commented making absol slightly frown, but she didn't say anything back as we walked closer to the front of the train so the lights couldn't blind us anymore.

"Huh, empty," said Aria standing on her tiptoes looking through the window on what was inside. She walked to the doors and touched the white circle placed on the central space of the doors and the circle changed colour to red. "Empty and closed. Did we missed some evacuation?"

"We missed what?" I asked as these time roles swapped and I didn't understand Aria.

"Evacuation is like a peaceful, organised and safe escape from someplace," the absol helped me for another time.

"Maybe it's some more serious issue with the power," thought Aria aloud, looking into other windows as we walked alongside of the long vehicle. "Oh, someone lost a shoe, every time I see a single lost shoe I wonder how the rest of the life of this person is like. What needs to happen to make you lose only one of your shoes. It can't just happen like, you return back home, look at your feet and say 'damn I lose a shoe and I have no idea where'. Every single lost shoe needs to have an interesting backstory and cause why just lays somewhere alone. Even if it broke no one would just throw one shoe and keep the second one."

"Are shoes so important in human culture?" I asked the young dark type, again.

"I guess so, some of them scroll hundred of pictures with shoes in their free time and watch them in shops. Also, everyone has some shoes on their feet, humans are also to pay much more for them than for any other kind of clothes. They leave them only when they are at home or go swimming," said the absol and pointed at Aria's feet. "They are kind of important choice, a t-shirt can be bought in a few moments, she likes it, she takes it but shoes need to be checked multiple times and a decision needs to be considered a long while before final decision to take some shoes or to keep looking for other pair."

"And you? Didn't want to try these 'shoes' out too?" I suggested curiously.

"Aria was the one who wanted me to try, I hope she won't get any similar idea ever again. Clothes for pokemon, what a terrible idea, fur is more than enough," grumbled Sonya. "I don't know how anyone can like it."

The human suddenly hummed, disturbing our conversation as we almost passed the train.

"If they evacuated then why are all the emergency lights off," wondered Aria and stroked Sonya's tuft, dishevel it completely. Sonya hadn't seemed to mind.

"Emergency lights are red lights that turn on when something is wrong," translated Sonya making me a favour before I could say another question. I was glad for it, but I realised I could be a little annoying asking over and over to the point where Sonya, after hearing another obvious question may just go postal with all bottled emotions. It always could be just the act of kindness and my worries were pointless, but what if they weren't? Currently, I was leading them, but the real leaders were the young Sonya and her human.

I decided to wait a little with asking about everything that comes to mind and almost failed a second later when I started to hear a distant cracking sound. I looked surreptitiously at Sonya and seeing her unchanged behaviour I guessed the sound was probably another very typical thing. Soon to the sounds joined weak blinks of light barely lighting up anything and making the tunnel to seem even darker as eyes, that with time managed to adjust to the dark of the metro, with some light lost their adaptation.

The light was probably coming from the exit that should be quite close already, two or three more turns and we would be back at the station. However the closer we were to our destination the brighter flashes of light were, the cracking sound raised to thundering roars full of sparking electricity, howls of powerful wind and besides all this, din. Many muffed by cracks and wind voices.

Sonya and Aria weren't so peaceful any longer and grew worried, their worry only grew the closer we were and the clearer the screams became because there were terrifying screams. As I slowed down unsure if I should continue in that direction, the pair of absol and human speed up trusting their hearing in guiding themselves through the last few meters of the unknown before passing the entrance of the 'Depot' and reaching the station. Falling slightly behind I didn't know what their reactions were to the view they saw passing the last turn but the wave of the smell of burning hadn't left much to wonder about. On the platform of the station lied even more people and pokemon then earlier waited for the train. Almost everyone had a nasty burn, from fire or lightning, long deep cuts on their body.

I stood in place shocked as it wasn't anything I could expect to see. From the stairs more and more wounded were coming down joining this ocean of the pain of the floor of the station. People and pokemon were bumping and colliding with each other rushing down into the metro, trampling those who fell down, their voices never out shouted the chaos anyway.

I spotted Aria making her way toward entrance carefully avoiding being rammed and holding her absol half on her shoulder, half in her hands, just as Sonya size allowed her for it but still it was enough to keep her from being trampled. I followed them, jumping over those who lied on the ground and trying to avoid feet of those stood. When Aria with great agility was climbing the stairs avoiding the people rushing down the ground shocked and the floor the platform cracked open causing a louder wave of painful screams from everyone who was there and even louder second wave of screams of terror from everyone in the metro when from the opening emerged the long red and dark limb covered in scales, all in width of at least three humans, with seemingly endless length, the tentacle shot through the station to the dark crystal that stood next to entry and supposed to be the source of the power. Wrapping around it, the limb pulled it back into the ground and from the hole it left resounded deep trebling cry of something extremely big.

"The Metro, or Eye of the City," I breathed to myself impatiently recognising the bloody red colour of its scales like skin. "It is... this must be the day when the city turns to ruin!"

Aria was almost at the top of the stairs when I looked back at her and with the new great motivation I rushed to her jumping height on stairs handrail avoiding the crowd I closed the distance between us, yet the scenery I saw outside made the underground tunnels look like the peaceful place.

The destruction didn't miss any spot of the city, the lighting from the void like dark sky kept bombarding the ground and seemed to choose the most crowded spots, between the building, howled the infernal tornado slowly moving away into different part of the city, in the air, like flocks were flying the green shining leaves cutting anything they met on their way. All buildings were set on fire and from the sky fell the endless rain of broken glass from all skyscrapers.

I spotted Aria only thanks to snow white fur of her absol so visible in the black and red burning hell.

Wishing myself all the best luck to avoid being hit I abandoned safe place with a solid roof and run to catch up to Aria, I didn't know why, I just felt this way.

I avoided a few wildly running humans, then jumped on the car that crashed into the metal pole next to the street just to jump on the roof of the bus that crashed into the back of the car. From here I could again see Aria, who wasn't any longer holding Sonya and allowed her to run next to her. She was going in one of the highest building directions.

Not the best timing for instincts of considering the den as shelter to kick in. I thought to myself.

Accelerating I leapt from the bus and impacted the ground hardly rolling for a few times before pushing myself up on the paws ignoring the itching pain of uneasy landing.

Instantly I was back on my flank as one human from the running group tripped upon me making my ribs to burn with pain, luckily my ribs didn't break, yet, the bruise would be for sure.

"Screw you, " I cursed on the human as his friends helped to stand up. However, right then the black lighting struck straight into the group before with a loud crack and my hearing turned off. Dust, ground and five new burned dismembered corpses shot into the air. I felt how warm fluid splashed my face and I felt a little lightheaded.

The foul odour of burned flesh invaded my nose and helped me to return to my senses, the noise of the environment attacked me with double force. I shook my head and looked away from what was left of the group. Aria already disappeared in the doors of the skyscraper. I sped in that direction, another bolt stroke this time on my right, but I managed to look what was the target this time, I didn't need to, right before I entered the building the bloody part of the arm with hand smacked the wall painting it red.

It wasn't so noisy inside the building but still, it was far from being peaceful. The floor was like a puddle of blood full of bodies, the bodies inside weren't torn apart by lightning like those on the streets, but had many deep cuts instead. I noticed that some of the heavy wounded still fight for life breathing, gravelly trying to stop the blood from leaving through their injuries even if they were so many wounded that there was no way they won't die in the next few minutes or even less. Aria wasn't among that bodies so, trying not to waste the precious time I ran across the first room into the first open doors and then up the stairs. Half guessing, half trusting my smell and ears I was choosing next turns and doors looking for my two companions.

"Sonya!" I called finding another stairs, I didn't get any answer but it was too loud for any voice to be heard. Going up again I found myself in the long corridor, all the windows were broken and glass lay on the floor, but besides that corridor was quite clean in comparison to the rest of the city right now. Next to one of the doors was Aria with her absol next to her nervously trying to open them.

"Just open!" shouted Aria kicking the door. "Broken fucking lock!"

"What are you doing!? It's not the place to be right now!" I said, approaching them.

"Zar? You should stay underground," answered a surprised Sonya, noticing me.

"Why did you come here?" I asked again.

"Anomalies, this cataclysm was made by them and behind this door, we have a record that says how to reverse them. We need to take it!" said Aria. The doors made 'click' and finally opened. Aria rushed forward jumped over the bed and grabbed the bag that stood on the chair.

"Got it!" she exclaimed, then turned to exit the room, when the building shuddered under our paws. Through the window, I could see a fire tornado approach us and how dozens of lightning bolts hit the building, making it shake even more. The floor became unstable and started to lose its level slowly becoming precipitous. The fire tornado disappeared from view and was replaced by the void-like sky, lit up by flares of the lightning, while in the window opposite the ground was quickly approaching as the building was collapsing.

My heart was racing and eyes open wide, yet I could scream seeing the ground approaching at a dangerous speed. The floor was almost like a perpendicular wall, making me lose any grip I had and fall forward hitting the window sill and falling through the window. Before I hit the ground I managed to take a deep breath, the one eons used to take before diving into the water.

The flash was short and after it, it was darkness. Complete darkness no matter which way I would look. I couldn't even see myself, my paws, ears or tail, yet I felt that I was standing, that every part of my body was where it should be. I even felt an irritating pain from the scar on my head.

"Damn," a harshly masculine said from somewhere before me.

"Yeah, damn. I didn't know he can do such flashy things," agreed with the male another voice, this time feminine and elegant.

"It's almost like your's flashy lights! Zar, you aren't part umbreon, that you know, like a hybrid between leafeon and umbreon? I hope you are not," said another female voice, that somehow was able to sound nice and cold at the same time. Then something snapped in me, I knew these voices and I knew to who they were belonging.

"Guys? Are you here too?" I asked into the abyssal darkness.

"Sure... where else are we supposed to be?" answered a glaceon's voice, somehow unsure.

"I just see the darkness and had to ask," I tried to explain my obvious question.

"Zar, jokes aside, we were worried for a second," pointed Serge in a serious tone.

"But I am not joking! Everything is black, I don't even see shadows or at least the smallest light," I said, honestly trying to look around.

"Zar! We all can see you have closed eyes, breaking the mood of this place in a good idea, but try something not targeted for newborn," said Liss in a surprisingly cold tone, even for her.

I blinked and blinked again as she was right. I had closed eyes and now as I opened them I saw the trio of eeveelutions staring at me judgmentally and I felt extremely stupid, yet I completely didn't felt that my eyelids were closed.

"Uh, heh... right," I flattered my ears from the wave of uncomfortable embarrassment.

"Sorry, after all, I am the one bad at joking in this group, it didn't sound like that. Being an ice type just make it easy to sound bitchy even if I don't mean to," apologised Liss.

"Okay," skipped her Cera. "What was that light? It was another joke or something different?"

I looked at worried espeon face unsure of my answer.

"Uhm, lights?" I asked. Looking around I found with surprise that the city was again in ruin just like before it rebuilt from dust.

"On your leaves, they blinked rapidly for a few times and flashed with a powerful blinding light that kept for a moment," intrigued Cera, weaving with a paw to get closer and off of the glass like surface, I followed.

"I just wait, so you just saw me standing on this glass for a short moment?" I asked surprised being able to swear that it passed at least half of a day.

"Yeah, about four seconds, I guess, I wasn't really counting," approved Liss shaking head.

"And that was all you saw?" I asked again.

"Sure it was," approved ice type nodding. "Oh, and your flashing leaves! Should it be anything more?"

"It felt so much longer than a second," I breathed understanding that the city didn't suddenly rebuild and I wasn't walking with younger Sonya and her human.

"Are you feeling alright?" Cera asked worriedly. "You look tired all of a sudden."

And so I was tired. Not muscle-tired, but sleepy and unable to focus my thoughts.

"Maybe flashing like that is very exhausting?" suggested Liss. "Is it Serge?"

"Not for umbreon," said the dark type. "I guess we all are, we are in a hurry, didn't sleep, didn't eat anything today and since we crossed the mountains there is nothing more than dust and ruins under a clouded sky. However, I don't think that rest here would give us any relief. Even if Zar starts to looks kind of yellow."

"I am... well, I would say fine but since my appearance speaks for me I can approve, yes I am kind of tired but I agree that we shouldn't stay here more than we need to," I said trying to at least sound fine.

"Sure, I don't even think I would be able to fall asleep being surrounded by all this dust and dark atmosphere," grunted Liss, examining her dirty paws critically.

"Dark isn't bad," mentioned umbreon.

"Yeah, you already said that yet you don't look too happy in this depressing environment," noticed Cera, still giving me most of her attention as if it at any moment something strange had to happen.

"That's because it's depressing," answered dark-type.

"Oh, Serge, you don't need to act like a brave one but everyone who isn't scared of the dark has very limited imagination and I am sure your imagination is right as it should be," smiled Liss to the umbreon and winked visibly rising Serge's mood.

"I don't really need so much of imagination to be scared of the dark," I said interrupting intensive staring at each other of the pair of eons.

"You mean the Eye of the City?" suddenly asked Cera. "The evil creature that lives here, the one you mentioned?"

"Uh, yes him... or her," I approved nodding. "I actually don't think he... or she won't be so evil to kill us today but for sure he...

"or she..." slipped in amused Liss.

"... isn't anything we want to see any longer then we need to," I finished.

"So, after all, we have to meet this thing?" questioned Serge without any enthusiasm.

"Well, it's kind of creature made the curse, live long enough to appear in the legends of our pack and didn't kill me the first time I was here, there wouldn't be much sense to let me live if Metro wouldn't need something from me," I explained.

"So we are going to make a deal with the spawn of corruption?" sceptically summed up Cera.

"I am not ordering you anything, it was just my idea what to do next since we can't face overpowered by the curse Vion and Vila so I think that asking Metro what to do and probably doing some favour for him can give us some answers about what to do next," I said, looking over all three of my companions.

"I don't actually like the idea but I don't have a better idea. Damn, I prefer Zar from memories, stupid and naive, amusing at the same time," complained the ice type, waving her ears from side to side. "Doing decisions doesn't really fit you."

"Thanks, I guess," I answered.

"Okay, time to meet this dark type eating creature," teased Liss smiling to Serge in the way I couldn't understand but made Cera snort.

Telling everyone to avoid the glassy ground wasn't necessary as no one made even a step forward, the glass going around the place. Looking over the ruin of the centre of the city I still had imagined how it was before its doom. This place always was empty but now, after seeing how many creatures could be there, it felt even more empty. It was like my pack or even bigger, more advanced.

What if the history was just repeating itself? Once in the past this city started to deal with the curse, anomalies and they destroyed it, now my pack was under the rule of two curse-users and I wouldn't like to see they same doom for the Middle or any other regions like the one that happened here. I just hoped that after meeting Metro, at least one of us will have an idea what to do.

* * *

A/N Hello, there is a poll on my profile about Another Sky, if you would have a second to vote, I would be glad :)


	25. Ch25 'Fire of the Past'

The moving steps weren't working, they were so still no one would've ever guessed that they could be anything more than just steps that lead down to the darkness of the underground. A chilling waft blew from the entrance, wolfing fur and spreading the feeling of danger, the slow breath of The Eye of the City, filled with all the terror and pain he absorbed from every life he has managed to capture, now, draining their life essence, forcing them to fear, to produce as much energy as they only can until he drains them all and throw them away, a pile of bones. Once captured there is only one escape, death. The Eye wasn't made to feel, it a creature of pure evil, an anomaly of the curse. Maybe someday before being cursed, it was a completely different creature, innocent and good, like me, but it meant nothing to me now. It had to be purified, burned to the deepest roots, turned to ashes and dust so no one will ever find it again or remember its existence. The nightmare had to end and the Pack will have a chance to take one peaceful breath and live in a world where death and blood aren't in daily routine.

I waved my bushy yellow tail and puffed my mane, raising the temperature of my body, some blue sparks sprinkled on the ground, blue flames danced around my muzzle as I breathed in and out deeply.

Another nightmare coming, another pain and torture, just to feed the Eye. My reminder of being naive, weak, unable to complete the task that was thrown at me. Enchanted by the gift or not I was still just an eeveelution, a pokemon, not big, not strong, also not evolved to be very smart. Just a flareon who met a freak and became one, I turned it well and also became a hero of the Pack, Rea the Blueflame.

I smiled to myself, at least I still could remember something, unless some memories stuck with me, then the Eye couldn't win with me completely. A pointless game of resistance, my will was weaker with every torture, while Eye's was only feeding itself.

The wind from the underground got stronger and I breathed deep once more, getting ready for another fight, already lost a hundred times fight.

"Hello Rea," said the Eye from the darkness. I wasn't thinking twice and immediately shoot the torrent of a blue blinding wave of fire into the entrance, filling it whole. The fire kept burning for five or more second crackling pleasantly before disappeared in the blink of the eye.

"Still standing strong, still resisting. Rea, you are already lost. The curse eats you from the inside, every time you use it, it brings you just another step closer to being just like me. But before that happens, you will be absorbed whole," said the Eye from deepest of the tunnels. "However today, today is a special day. Today your resistance can actually help you, today you can have a chance to change your fate and stop the torture."

"I don't believe you!" I growled back, trying not to show a worry, but I worried a lot, like what could happen that would make a difference?

"Today, instead of your sweet life, I will consume some knowledge. I won't threaten you with a more invading way to rip useful information from your brain, you already wish for death. You remember the First One, the rat that had to stick in some hole and spread the curse, but instead followed, the surprisingly not dead instincts of curiosity and reproduction. Even you had a short romance with him that affected you by giving you a curse too, a bit different than expected, but still a curse.

"Not a rat, an eeveelution, Sinar," I fumed.

"It's overuse to call him anything but yes, his appearance was close to eeveelution, such a small creature and make so much of a mess. What do you know about him?"

"He is gone, probably dead," I said, trying to guess why Eye took interest in him now. Sinar left, leaving a lot of mess behind him, disease to the world, destroyed the balance between types, unreal creatures like Eye appearing here and there and the curse, a madness that could turn anyone into a monster.

"Are you sure about that? We can return to consuming you if don't like the idea of being asked," said the Eye dangerously as four sharply ended limbs slowly made their way through the darkness toward the end of the entrance to the underground.

"I am, I was with him in the night he disappeared, he entered the place I couldn't and he never returned, the portal closed and disappeared," I said. Besides all my pride and bravery, I didn't like approaching limbs.

"That's unfortunate, because it looks like I met the First One's legacy!" boomed dangerously Eye.

"You know that what I say true! I am the only one who spends time with him, so much time to be cursed, and then he disappeared," I said, thinking that the Eye had already decided to return to torturing. They Eye stayed silent for a long while.

"You said truth, yes. It wasn't a curse he left, it had to be... a cub, maybe? The accident that he never even discovered and the legacy I met is the echo of this accident."

"Sinar had a cub!? With who?" I asked surprised trying to remind myself... anything that would answer me, but any memory couldn't give me an answer. The Eye hummed.

"With who? That question is for you, after all, you can still be used before being consumed, why not, you are no match for me anyway," thought out loud the Eye. "That's it. I will give you to him or even better, I will make him ask for you and you will be free again. You are full of the curse and the legacy can be too, thanks to you he will unleash his potential and clean the mess Sinar did. A curse will eat you and you will drag Sinar's legacy with you. Rea the Blueflame, your destiny days are coming, I set you free!"

* * *

"It stinks," commented Cera, looking at the entrance to the metro.

"Still better than Serge's den," said Liss standing next to her, Serge narrowed his eyebrows "I mean, if you don't invite Zar for a long period of time... like, he refreshes the air, air underground is unfresh, den is underground. Also, you are in the den, not always clean..."

"Staph, I get it," Serge cut her off. "Whenever we return to pack, you can feel invited Zar."

"Thanks," I answered. "Anyway, this stinky hole was our destination, I guess it was."

"From the lack of alternative ideas, it is," agreed Cera nodding. "Is this thing really so terrible?"

"It's even worse, smells bad, looks terrible and has terrifying intelligence. Like, I would expect something big and ugly like this to be a complete idiot. Yet it isn't."

"Okay! Metro is powerful and stuff, how much you can talk about it guys? Just let's go and beat its ass!" said Serge, irritated going into the darkness of the underground.

"But... it doesn't have an ass," I noticed following him into the metro.

"So how does it sit so long underground?" asked glaceon, walking behind me.

"Just imagine one magnificent ass underground the ruined city supporting the evilest creature the world know," espeon answered her, and pushed herself in before glaceon, making her closing our group from behind.

We entered the underground station of the metro, or what was left from it, I knew it was station only thanks to my 'dream' or 'vision', the darkness of this place, walls, ceiling and floor overgrew by thick veins, sporadically flickering muscles and even more hard to identify living and moving organs changed this place into the interior of some huge creature. Completely different than it once was.

"That's disgusting!" commented Serge, looking around.

"What are these weird shapes on the walls? Could you increase the light a little?" asked the espeon, and the umbreon shined with its mystical blue light even brighter, liting up most of the room. "Is this flesh?! I don't feel so good anymore," said Cera weakly.

"Stay strong, it's not as bad as it seems," I said trying to make her feel better.

"Not that bad? There is something living on the walls?! I got used to seeing fluffy eeveelutions, not something of horror!" shouted the espeon, behaving nervously. "How you feel about it, Liss?"

Liss didn't answer, staying completely still, looking into the empty space before her with very focused face expression, then wobble rapidly and vomited. As she finished, she was choking for air with an unstable breath and kept spitting, trying to get rid of the taste of undigested interiors of her stomach.

"What a pity, the first impression is always the most important," echoed the voice from the deepest of the tunnels and a second letter from the large hole in the platform, just like before emerged the large red eye of the Metro, with many tentacle-like limbs swinging around. "The abhorrence and dread accompany me, I am the Eye. Welcome, Serge, son of Efrys and Soyiar, the blue umbreon, a hunter but a coward, Cera, daughter of Lirie and Sycit, a product of psychic abomination, Lissandre, daughter Lean and Raarc, just a glaceon, and finally Zar, the legacy of the dark litter, a descent of Sinar. I welcome you all in my domain, your life belongs to me now, and you will stay here until I decide otherwise. But first I crave with interest, what madness could lead you, Zar, to come back here, and even bring friends with you!?"

"It already knows us?!" exclaimed surprised Cera.

"Sure I am, I am the Eye of the Night, nothing can escape my sight," echoed Metro's voice. "Your pack lies nearby, it is easy to observe, though I need to agree that there were days when my interest in you was much greater."

One of Eye's limbs went up toward the ceiling where the Eye was keeping its hanging victims for consumption and brushed the fur of one of the unconscious creatures, a flareon.

"That's a souvenir of these times."

"We have come here to talk about the curse," I said, hiding my emotions behind the cold tone, I could feel the surprised eyes of my friends on my back, but managed to avoid looking at them for now and focus on Metro.

"Curse," repeated the Eye with abhorrence in its voice. "For you, it's a curse. The distortion that runs through the world is something more than a 'curse'. It's a power, reaching out to everyone who is willing to use it."

"It brings madness and pain to everyone who tries to touch it!" shouted Serge, but immediately cowered when the Eye turned his attention to him.

"The distortion gives equal chances to everyone who tries to use it, however, not everyone is strong enough to control it, not everyone is worthy to possess such power that comes with distortion. For them, there is fear and terror to face," answered him the Eye.

"We search for a way to undo the distortion," I said, gaining Metro's attention again.

"To undo? And you came to me with that? What do you ask next? To peacefully annihilate myself?" jibed the creature, amused. "My flareon souvenir also once searched for a similar solution."

"If she is a relic of the past and the pack existed without the distortion to the last week, it looks like she found something," I notice and Metro hummed deeply.

"Yes," the monster answered after a long pause. "We made a deal, the pack will stay free from distortion, but her life will be mine for eternity. What you mean by 'to the last week'?

"Two eeveelutions appeared to be, as you said, worthy to rule the curse and they are now in the pack testing their abilities," I said.

"There is no curse... I mean distortion in the Eight Peaks!" boomed the Eye with dozens of mouths from every direction

"Why would we come to you if there was no curse in our home?" asked Serge.

"The curse is there even longer than these three last days, however, earlier, we didn't have problems with it. Vion use the curse to support his psychic and live through many more generations then he naturally should," added Cera. "He also mentioned you, calling you The Eye from The City, Vion knew you looked in our direction and probably was observing you too."

Liss only nodded in approval to show some support to the rest. Metro looked at each of us separately and hummed deeply again.

"I wish I could just destroy every single representative of your species, you irritate me!" said Metro, and for one more time reached to the hanging flareon and brought it to the floor. "I already gave you an absol, this one I only borrow. She should be more than enough to solve your problem, she has knowledge and experience fighting of the distortion from 'worthy' pokemon. A long time of consumption may require some time for her to recover. But now, the prize."

"A prize?" asked umbreon suspiciously.

"When you clean your pack from the distortion, you Zar the White, will sacrifice yourself to me."

"What?" chirped Cera. "No deal, we don't even know what flareon is it or how supposed to be helpful!'

"I agree," I said and almost immediately my head itches with the pain of psychic shout.

 _Did you lose your mind? It's the death you agreed to!_

"Good luck," said the Eye and slowly disappeared underground with its numerous limbs.

"Let's take this flareon outside," suggested Liss before anyone could start to argue about the deal. Serge nodded and lifted fire-type by the mane caring it toward the exit. Closer to the exit, I finally could take a closer look at the flareon, it was female, not young but also not dying yet, she looked terrible and tired, with eyes with dark rings around them and darker shade of the face. However I resist judging her age or appearance just yet, everyone would look bad after being consumed by the metro.

The sky greets as with the same grey colour as the walls covered in dust ruins.

"Well, we survived," summed up the ice-type looking much better now, her humour was slowly returning to her as the terrifying aura of Metro faded away.

"For now," added Cera sceptically. "I still don't know how this flareon can help us with anything."

"The Eye called her a souvenir from different times. Would that mean that she is, you know, like from the past?" noticed the umbreon, placing the fire-type on the ground, freeing his mouth.

"I don't know, I wanted her because she didn't fit there. Metro consume mainly dark-types and she was the only not-dark-type hanging there," I said observing flareon. "You know, like in games for pups, find not fitting some environment object."

"And you had to bet your life for this?!" snorted Cera.

"Don't be so negative, I am not in a hurry to die," I tried to calm her down. "We all risk our lives in this, good that Metro didn't want anything from you or generally that it didn't give you too much attention."

"But it actually gave, when he... it greeted us he knew our parents and... few more facts," noticed Liss.

"Yeah, 'just a glaceon', it was hard to miss," she answered, the umbreon shaking his head.

"The Eye knew the names of our parents, but probably nothing more, let's just not talk about it right now, it just wanted to seed doubt in us," said Cera, unhappy by glaceon mentioning this.

"I need to say that the Eye succeeded," huffed Serge, waving his tail from side to side.

"So what!? Can't you keep trusting us knowing that each of us has some secret? Want to just tell your secret here and now to us? Want to be the first?" Cera let go of her building emotions and almost shouted at Serge.

"I am sorry, I don't know why I said it," apologised Serge quickly, lowering his ears and it reminded me about Sonya's sudden aggression. It was a very similar situation, we just left Metro and get into arguments about some secret of the absol.

"It's because of Metro," I joined the conversation. "It affects dark-types to make them aggressive and negative! Don't blame Serge, it wasn't him." I tried to calm both eeveelutions.

"Let's just leave this place if we can," suggested Liss and rubbed against her umbreon.

"Okay, right, you are both right," breathed deeply Cera. "So back to the pack?"

"Uh, no," I said unsure. "Whatever helps this flareon has to be, I guess she needs to be awake, so unless we have to just throw her onto Vion... but I guess it's not her purpose. We would need to go in the opposite way, to the wilderness and put this flareon on her paws."

"I just hope that the Eye likes this idea too and won't kill us before we leave these ruins," mentioned glaceon, looking back into the entrance to the underground.

"In this case, looks like you have to lead again Zar," said Serge. "But first help me take this fire type on my back, I won't drag her all this way in my muzzle."

Leaving the city felt much quicker then coming here in the first place, the reason behind it could lay in our own willingness to leave this place just as earlier laid in reluctance to come here. Even with Serge carrying the new companion of our mission, we moved quickly through the streets of the city. Leading wasn't a problem, some of absol's and my steps in the dust were still visible, just to follow them. Also, after being here for the second time, or third time counting my reaction with the floor, the city no longer seemed like the endless labyrinth of streets, they were making some sense, some of them were long and straight, other curvy and narrow but just to connect bigger ones. Altogether the city seemed to be built in the shape of honeycomb, with some elements of circles getting wider and wider the further we were from the centre and the further from the centre we were, the smallest ruins were. Instead of towering construction of twisted steel, we were passing lower square as piles build with smaller square-like objects.

Sporadic trees started to appear in the environment, bushes, grass, the sun in the sky, white sporadic swirls instead of the grey ceiling covering the whole sky. We passed the gates of a former 'highway' and there was where I stopped and with me the rest of the group.

"A break?" questioned Serge. "Great idea, even sleeping this flareon warms my back mercilessly, I am so thirsty!"

"I can give you something to drink!" suggested Liss, helping umbreon to put flareon on the grass.

"I meant water, I am thirsty for water," answered Seger looking at his mate.

"Ice is water too, just wait until it melts," said Liss focusing for the moment and with icy beam creating the pile of ice on the ground. "Serge, not everything I say has to have a second meaning, seriously."

Said glaceon, and I could see Serge blushing even though his black fur, or I was just so used to him that I recognised this position of ears and tail composited with the shade of blue shine of his rings. Anyway, I felt better when my friends had their humour back and Metro was just a memory, for now. I honestly had fears that Serge can behave similarly to Sonya, but visibly I should believe in him. Sonya was very unstable dark-type, wild and trusting her instincts while Serge was trained, controlling his powers and experienced dark-type, maybe he sometimes said a bit too much, but no harm was done. Was it why Metro called him a coward? Serge wasn't stupid, I believe that he noticed more than I that he sometimes was allowing his emotion to 'carry' his action. Was it his fear? To do something too much? I could only wonder but whatever it was I decided to avoid pushing him to tell me about it. Just like Cera said, some secrets shouldn't make us strangers to each other.

The anomaly of psychic, Cera always was interesting espeon, with her early evolution and mastery over her element composited with the attractive outlook she managed to created large interest in her person... and backside, let's be honest here. Females rarely can offer more than just outlook so whenever some have some interest or hobby, they create much attention.

 _I am not such a mystery, you know._

Echoed the familiar voice in my head.

Oh, where my private space went right now? I thought.

 _You are my mate if wanna free mind space then finds some non-psychic mate._

Don't be so nervous, I am just wondering.

 _I am not nervous, besides... well you are right, you have some privacy, at least in your thoughts. I shouldn't but I want to know what is going in your head, I fear Metro. I am wondering about what the Eye said, but not about Serge or me, but about you. The dark litter, it's Vion and Vila, it's Azor and many before him... and after him. You can't be from the dark litter, you are too good for it!_

I am.

 _But how?! Neither your mother nor father was from the Azor line!_

Azor and my mother had a close relationship, my father knew about it, but he couldn't fight with Azor so he accepted it. That's how pack worked, the stronger took what the wanted.

 _But the dark litter is evil! They want to destroy, they want to rule, you don't fit there! You save lives, heal, go against the curse. The dark litter are like legendaries amongst mortals while you are just like us._

I don't know how it works or how it supposed to be, I do what I felt I should do, I do what you, all of you feel should be done.

 _But everyone from dark litter has some superpower, like from childish tales, like the legends. You are just a leafeon, clumsy, in most situations just useless, depending on your friends._

I...

 _No matter what you say, I don't believe that you are just like Vion and Azor, that you are the Dark Litter, the curse and the destruction. Even if the Metro says differently, even if the future hides secrets that make you fit the dark litter, even if the sky falls down and the earth break under our paws, I won't let it happen, you won't be a curse, you won't be destruction, you won't be the Dark Litter, the Legacy of Giratina and her manipulations in our kind. I am the emancipation of the psychic, the cleanest bread of espeon and psychic types, I will carry, even if everything would be gone, I won't allow you to be evil, so watch yourself._

"Calm down," I said aloud and I brushed my cheek against Cera's. Liss and Serge seeing us looking at each other for a longer time, gave us some space trying to look as minding their own business, or at least Serge was trying, Liss was staring with her ears pointed hight.

"No fortune, no fame awaits us, we just fall. We just go for our survival, from the beginning to the end and we will finish like the ashes we pass," said the espeon in a trembling voice, and I felt that she is quoting something, not making much sense, but having tears in her blue eyes. "I wasn't made of love, just planned created, my life was built out of lies! I wasn't skilled from the day of being born, I was just modified embryo, just like today, I can modify by psychic my body so my parents modified me. To create the perfect espeon, I never achieved anything on my own, I never learned anything on my own, I was just made to do things, I am projected to do the things I do today! I didn't evolve because I chose to, it was just planned, just like everything I ever did. Everything is just a program in my genes. I can just lay the whole day doing nothing, I will learn programmed skills anyway, I may never use some ability and I become a master in using it. I am not made of love, I am made of the curiosity of two skilled psychics that wanted to do an experiment!" Cera burst into tears. "Love me, please make it out loud! I don't want to be noticed by their abilities or silhouette I have, it was all planned and written by Lirie and Sycit making the product of their psychic, psych-creation. I don't feel the pride of things they gave me, the abilities to rule psychic, the intelligence, even more, abilities, position in the pack, nor wide hips and slender body, long legs or perfect face. If you love these, it's okay but what mattered the most were these shred of character I managed to create among all programmed things, love me!"

"I do love you," I answered to her sudden outburst.

"Say more, what do you love?" pressed the espeon, already crying, discovering her secret was a real problem for her. Now I had to go with something creative. Damn, now when my mind seemed to work at the slowest possible speed.

"I love you being sleepy in the morning when all others espeon run around praising the sun, I love your fear from thunders besides the knowledge that they can't do anything to you. I love when you are able to forget about everything you know or can do and can enjoy the simplest things, like unproductive spending time in the surrounding of a friend. I also love your arguing with Serge, when you just conflict with each other bringing every possible stereotype about umbreon and espeon envy. I can't imagine myself with a different mate then you," I said in the best manner I could really hope that's enough. It was, Cera fell into me pushing me to the ground placing a long and deep kiss I truly enjoyed.

"Oh shit!" I heard Liss yelp. "I want this too!, Just without all this shit talk!" Out of the corner of my eye, I could see how glaceon throw Serge to the ground and silence his protest in passionate kiss similar to Cera's one, yet still far from the original.

* * *

The unplanned break was much longer than expected, exhaustion returned draining every last bit of energy each of us had and one by one we curled together to rest, not minding the sun still being high, sporadic noises of the forest, not even caring to hide. We had the mountains, the city and the Eye of Night behind, even if Vion was chasing us, he won't pass next to the Eye as easy as we. The metro was surprised learning about them using the curse so I guess they are enemies. Going around the city could take weeks, finding out trial again, even longer. Since leaving the pack in a hurry, I could feel safe again.

As time passed, more and more breaths turned into a rhythmic beat as another eeveelution fell asleep. I didn't know when I was next. Funny that whenever I wanted to sleep, first I had to pretend I am sleeping.


	26. Ch 26 Breath of the Night

"Hello and welcome back."

I sat down in total confusion as my mind tried to turn on and understand what just happened. Looking around, I settled down that I was in the middle of a somehow familiar clearing, a few steps before me sat slim female leafeon looking at me cooking her head to the side.

"Tera?" I asked as my vision cleared enough to recognise shapes and eon.

"Of course, and who different?" smiled grass-type.

"I didn't expect you to be here," I said honestly.

"You thought that I expected you come again to the cave which you described 'without the exit'?" asked rhetorically Tera. "Also your knowledge should tell you that plants can't grow in caves and need sunlight, well besides some specific ones. Generally, I am growing somewhere, but I am not completely limited to this one place, as long as there is a path of plants connections between us then we can make a lesson. Unless you don't want to, I came without any warning so I understand if it's not the right time."

"Uh, I just passed through the ruined city so I am kind of tired," I said sheepishly, feeling bad for using an excuse.

"Wait, you mean you are far away from the pack?" asked visibly stunned leafeon. "Are trips like that popular now or the pack reaches now beyond the mountains?"

"For both, the answer is no," I answered realising she knew nothing about the curse, Vion and Vilastraday, the Dark Litter, Metro and all the problems I had to face. She lived in times before the curse was known in pack

"So?" Tera pressed. "It has something to do with finding out if absols can evolve?"

"No it doesn't, it just complicated, the current world is much different from what you knew," I said slowly.

"Yeah, yeah, a typical thing to say for someone in your age, 'what can you know about my modern problems' and stuff," sighted leafeon lying down on the grass. "What, a female rejected you? Did you step on the tail of the elder? Something humiliating happened to you? What is such 'terrible problem' that made you go so far away from home and think that I am not able to get around with my old mind?"

"It's not this kind of problem! The thing that made me and my friends leave home is the curse!" I said loudly annoyed by her guessing.

"The curse?" repeated Tera sceptically, looking at me suspiciously.

"Dark and evil force that can twist everything into a worse version of it, drive pokemon to madness...,"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah I don't need examples, I heard about it," the leafeon interrupted me, raising a paw to stop me talking.

"You did? But it just started," I questioned, confused.

"It started in the past too, before I was even born. The so-called First Great Crisis. It came from the ruins of the old city, mindless creatures filled with the energy of the Void that kept them in motion. Whatever lived and died in this city became such a creature with a purpose to spread the plague," said Tera. "But the mysterious energy from the Void isn't fully evil, one flareon met the Void before that event, it changed her in the way she was able to defeat creatures from the city and stop the plague, she never returned from her mission. The Void energy still could be found here and there, it was slowly getting weaker and disappearing but even in times I was alive there were places where they stayed strong. It wasn't dangerous, this energy without anyone controlling it seemed to be completely useless and keep disappearing. Guess history repeats, the hardest part is finding an effective weapon against it."

"Yes, but not exactly, the curse didn't come from the city this time, eeveelutions started it, in the very middle of the pack," I said correcting her

"You say WHAT?" she shouted suddenly. "How it could happen? How anyone could allow this corruption into the pack! The Middle, devastated by the Void! Void started by eeveelutions! Do you know what it can mean?! Our whole race in every part of the world is screwed now!"

"Uh, it's not that we just allowed it inside..." I started feeling kind of a shame that such an event had a place.

"No, it didn't just happen right now, it has to have a source somewhere in the past, someone missed something, everybody needed to be blind to something!" dramatised Tera jumping up to her paws and energetically walking in chaotic circles on unreal clearing. "Maybe this energy wasn't harmless at all, it just somehow got into us, changing as to use us."

"Not really, there was the so-called Dark Litter, most of them have some special ability. Like, to make something unusual or impossible," I said breaking her train of thought. She stopped in place.

"You say that there was a whole litter, generation after generation of unusual eeveelutions and nobody gave a flying fuck? What's wrong with them?!" burst leafeon and her leaves flapped as if in a wave of strong wind. "Modern eons are total idiots! These spawn of Void didn't even need to hide! What even shot into your heads? Oh, this guy just shot a laser from his ass, what a cool trick, totally legit."

"These abilities weren't 'that' unusual," I marked silently feeling that maybe I shouldn't say that.

"Not so unusual, but they could start corruption inside of the pack," continued shouting Tera returning to, this time angry, walking.

"Current generation of the Dark Litter did it, but their father, Azor did a lot of good things to the pack when he was a leader..."

"A leader!" I was again interrupted by Tera shouting. "Hold me or I will pass out. When did the world end? The pack, greater than in my times, with more than ten regions and thousand of eons under the leadership of Void spawn. Do you sacrifice blood for Giratina too? Dance around black flame under the red moon, tosing pieces of fresh meat into open jaws of summoned monsters?"

"Um," I started but when I thought about it for the second time then who knew what was happening now in the pack. "Monsters?"

"Lured by the promise of great power, pokemon modified and bloodthirsty with one purpose of bringing the world into darkness," explained Tera and I lost some of my vigors for awaiting adventure. As if Metro wouldn't be enough. "Rea the Blueflame, defender of the Pack I told you earlier was also a kind of such creature but stayed on a good side."

Tera sat down and breathed deeply for a few times calming her leaves.

"I am sorry for my outburst," apologised back in her calm and friendly. "I shouldn't do it next to the student, but when I heard that such ugliness is in middle then my heart just shot ablaze. So, you are now away from the pack to return and fight back, I got it right?"

"Yeah, most likely. For now, I don't know how to do it or what to do in general," I said honestly.

"I see, I will help you with all the knowledge I have. Do you have any questions?" asked leafeon lying down and crossing front paws.

"Well, I would love to continue to learn how to be proper leafeon, also would like to ask why you call the curse the 'Void', isn't it just kind of unnatural illness?" I used the opportunity she gave, as the term kept confusing me, but she was too angry in her outburst to ask impatiently.

"No, I don't know much about the curse, but to avoid confusing it with dark energy of umbreons we call it an energy of the Void," said Tera. "No one ever discovered what the Void is in general, but it needs to be some kind of place, eons involved in searching pieces of information were saying about a hidden passage."

"Wow, for you it may be not much, but it's already twice as much as I knew," I said wondering how Cera would comment on this information.

"Zar, about your training, I think that because of current events we need to break your learning of the path of the leaf," said slowly Tera looking me into eyes. "It's good for normies and your situation is far from normal."

"But you can't! I need to know how to do stuff!"

"Oh, don't dramatise. I said that I'll stop teaching you the leaf path. Not that I will stop teaching you at all," smiled ominously leafeon. "I will teach you to be such a leafeon that changes this land into such a nightmare for everything that came from the Void that they will regret the side they chose. Welcome on the path of thorns Zar, by your paws I remind the world how terrifying we can be even if you have to be the last leafeon that the pack will ever see. See you on the lesson, I have a lot to prepare. Goodnight.

* * *

I woke up late in the afternoon, warm waves of wind brushed through my fur. The season of the sun was coming, every next day felt warmer, the air was moist and heavy, the sky cloudy, but the sun still shone brightly between the dark and white swirls.

"In the empty valley, a chilly wind blows, above the steppe arcane mist," I heard a gentle feminine voice sing. "The snow has passed, the white flower blew. Where did you lose another soul?"

"The ember of the heart sobs in the dark, the warm days have to come, won't warm cold soul, won't bring it home," joined another, this time Liss' voice. "The trail separated them both, the wind carried their talks."

"You gave him best wishes, wasn't it a gift from your heart? Did your emotion fade away with time? Passed the sun, passed the storms and the ice, the dark day has come."

"Your heart and love lie in the ground, he doesn't need anything more, above him, a white flower blows."

"In the empty valley, a chilly wind blows, above the steppe arcane mist, terrible death takes her feast."

"Do not cry, do not let the tear leave your eye, for your friends for your pack died your loved one, here he lies, in your mind, you can still hear living heart sound. Our ground will be good for him."

The song ended in leaving the space in pure silence. I stayed on the ground fearing to disturb it with any sound until Serge broke it anyway.

"You got inspired by Metro to sing Cursed Heart now? Couldn't you go with something more cheerful like Sparkling Light or Living?" asked unhappy umbreon sitting nearby.

"It's a nice song, it kind of touches me," said Liss, sitting next to the umbreon and leaned on him.

"Oh, Zar you're finally awake, you slept like a log," Cera noticed I wasn't sleeping immediately, I hadn't even to stand up. She probably wasn't even looking anyway.

"Yop, I am," I said standing up. All three were sitting in the circle where the grass was quite low. They were surrounding the pile of bones and red coloured ground, some of the bones still had raw meat on them.

"Today, a rattata, very rare," commented Serge seeing me looking at the bones.

"You mean completely raw," said sceptically Cera.

"Want to taste this flavour of the wilderness?" Serge asked sneering.

"Sure," I said leaving my new information about the curse for later. Also, I had to find some good explanations about the source, saying that female leafeon visited me during my sleep was a terrible version to say to Cera. I walked closer and take a bite. Munching took some time, more than it once used to be, before evolution. "Tastes just like the one in the Pack, though it still amazing you find anything to hunt on here," I said after finally swallowing.

"All thanks to my hunting experience," said proudly umbreon strutting and making Cera harrumph. "Aaaand helpful psychic that scanned the area."

"I could catch it by myself, psychic is good at killing too," said Cera.

"You would abuse whole hunting mastery! To hunt you have to achieve mastery in hiding and gain condition of the hunter," answered an offended umbreon. "I could use some of type-power too to kill it faster but the meal has to be a thing. It has to be done with fangs and claws, minimalising used resources. Also, the victim must know they are hunted, their blood has to boil in their vines and fear has to enslave their mind, that's what makes them taste best. Meat from the game that died not even knowing when is just as bad as meat from a carcass. Someone can like it but it misses its flavour. Also, there is nothing better to raise the appetite than a little excitement before eating."

"I didn't expect anything different from the dark-type," snorted Cera.

"I didn't expect psychic-type to understand," said back Serge.

"Both of you do exactly what could be expected from dark and psychic type," laughed glaceon. "I wonder why any other eeveelution doesn't have such negative interaction! Hay, Zar, you are leafeon and I am glaceon do you want to share some hate toward out type disadvantage?" said Liss and walked next to me lowering the temperature of the air significantly.

"I think I will pass this competition," I said moving a bit away.

"Oh, it wasn't even cold enough to make water freeze, but okay," said Liss pretending to be sad, but the smile in the corner of her mouth was too obvious.

"That's not a good example, that the only leafeon the pack known, also glaceon spend most of their time high in the mountains, it isn't possible to start any rivalry in any area," commented Cera, and took another bone from the corpse. "Also, you are not opposed to each other. Both of you prefer different biomes, both have different areas to 'shine' and the only area you don't have equal chances is direct combat."

"So, how is it different from dark and psychic type?" asked the ice-type.

"Being psychic is kind of way to live, you are not psychic only in combat, but all the time. You live your abilities, some of them work passively and you use them just as eyes or nose. Dark-types are complete opposition, they not only based on negative emotions but also block all extra senses you got used to," explained espeon. "Also it's not 'hate', rather unwillingness to be near dark-type."

"And umbreon is not nice toward espeon because they are so negative toward us," added Serge. "And here we have a circle."

"Sogot didn't like me, but I don't think it was because of the type, or at least not mainly," I noticed.

"Please, Sogot doesn't like anyone in the pack who won't fall to him and call him his or her leader every sentence," snorted Cera.

"I kind of missed this... leadership," said slowly Liss. "Ice is rarely needed so orders from the Middle are also rare and so are interactions with leaders."

"Honestly, I would like to visit White Slopes, it is an interesting place in the pack, so isolated and fully build and kept by one kind of eeveelutions. It would be a nice experience," wondered espeon licking the bone from the rest of the meat that still stuck to it.

"It's truly worth it," agreed on Serge. I already knew that umbreon was there for a few times with Liss. "Though it is impossible to stay there for long because of the cold, it a truly beautiful part of the pack."

"Oh, do not complain, you had your warm spot in my den," said Liss rolling her eyes.

"Den made of ice," snorted Serge.

"But you liked the trip!"

"Yeah! I loved this, can you imagine that there is a cave built by a glaceon with perfectly built crystals and walls so that if you stand in the marked spot and create a sound, any sound, then those crystals and wall will reflect it changing it into a melody. Every sound create different melody!" bubbled umbreon waving a paw in the air drawing crystal-like shapes. "Or there was also a glaceon that was making realistic looking statues of anyone who asked for one, you could even choose a size, small version of you or statue as big as you! They were made of ice, so you can't take one to your den if you don't live there. Interesting was that he had one to one statue of Azor the Duskeye, you would be surprised how normal-looking this legend was, he was even shorter than me. I would say, completely normal umbreon."

"Damn, this glaceon has to be old to have seen Azor and make him a statue," I noticed surprised. I just hoped it not another Dark Litter member, there were enough of us to deal with.

"Dean didn't see Azor, nor his father," laughed amused Liss. "Ice in the mountains never melts and these statues are hidden in caves, they stay unchanged for sessions. There is a lot of them, most of them even older than Azor and many generations before him! Some even say that even grey-eyed, you know, from this legend, have its sculpture somewhere deep in these frozen caves. They aren't named 'Archives' by mistake."

"Fascinating," breathed Cera, staring at glaceon.

"Sure it is, though most of the icy tunnels are unknown, even for glaceon that keep it in shape. Most of it is from times when the pack didn't have the whole valley to their own. Most of White Slopes territory is abandoned, glaceon isn't as popular a way to evolve as it once was," said glaceon, waving the paw in similar to Serge manner. "If you don't mind the climate, there are a lot of beautiful dens waiting for a new owner."

"I guess more eons prefer the warm environment of the valley, living close to the river and under tree's crowns," suggested umbreon. "Your home region always seems to be so far away, at the edge of the pack territory. Considering mountains as the edge, it's literally."

"Now it's the edge, but looking in the history of the pack we can learn that we originally were living near the mountains," said Cera, wondering and scratching her ear. "There were days where the valley wasn't full of eeveelutions, but was quite dangerous. With many different packs roaming, mountains provided protection from larger pokemon, and eons spread out in the valley. Thanks to the human's city, the number of potential predators decreased around the city and before humans could take much interest in a small pack of eeveelutions something wiped them out."

"There is always something bigger," laughed Serge, stood up and stretched. "I think everyone feels better now after a good sleep and meal. To visit White Slopes, we have to take down Vion and whatever he did with the curse. We have this flareon, but for now, the only thing she does is breathing, also because of the deal you agreed on Zar, before we go for Vion, we have to find how to kill Metro."

I looked upon nearby lying flareon, as Serge said, she was still unconscious, but looked somehow better than yesterday.

"Uh, maybe I don't know anything about creatures that never should have started to exist, but isn't it far beyond our possibilities?" questioned Liss sheepishly. "Maybe we saw his eye and stuff but I guess that is just a small part of real him... it, and so I guess that any way we know of killing things won't be very effective."

"So what? We just about to accept that Zar will leave us someday?" asked Serge angrily. "It is not what I expected."

"No one said we are going to accept it!" Cera said loudly, narrowing her eyes. "But I would like to hear an idea how to do it then reminding what we have to do."

"Guys, it's weird when you talk about me while I am still here," I interject, but felt a little unnoticed.

"Maybe she will know," the umbreon pointed at the sleeping flareon. "Maybe she knows something bigger and stronger than Metro, something that would like to hunt for such prey."

"I think that if she knew how to kill Metro, then she wouldn't end as its souvenir," I said lowering umbreon's enthusiasm.

"Also I doubt that the Eye would be so stupid as to give us a hint of how to kill him," added Cera. "I think we should focus on bringing this flareon to functionality and leave the discussion about things we do not understand for later."

Everyone turned their eyes to flareon lying motionlessly since Serge dropped her there. Saliva was slowly dripping from her half-open muzzle and she was lying on her flank and her mane and tail full of tiny sticks, leaves and needles from forest cover.

"Whenever I look at her I subconsciously expect some awesome idea to storm into my mind, but instead my mind just goes blank," said Liss, and returned to cleaning her paws from rattata's blood so visible on her white fur.

"I wonder how long it's possible to sleep," added Cera.

"Well, Metro was stealing her energy longer than any of us have lived for," I marked.

"I'm thinking about speeding up the process," said Cera and stretched. "One espeon to deal with the mind, one leafeon to deal with the body and she will be ready to go in no time. We just miss sylveon for full treatment, but still should be more than enough."

"But she isn't wounded, or in need to heal," I noticed, wondering what exactly I had to do to her.

"She neither looks healthy," answered Cera, taking a place just next to flareon. "Let's see."

Cera's eyes shined blue and her view changed into a blank stare, visibly looking like she wasn't 'seeing' with her eyes right now.

It was kind of funny as I had never seen an espeon doing this next to me, they always were going in some private space to do their psychic mind things. I had to say it looked quite stupid, judging from Cera's appearance right now.

Trying to be at least a little helpful, I started to exhale relaxing pollen, not that it had to be needed much, but it was always something.

"What you think she will say?" asked suddenly a glaceon, looking at the flareon.

"What do you mean?" asked Serge, turning to his mate and cocking his head to the side.

"I don't know, I just wonder what's the first thing you do after sleeping soo long that the world you knew is already forgotten by the world you wake up in," wondered Liss, raising a paw and inspecting it, checking if her whiteness was back to the perfect state."What would you do, Serge, in her situation?"

"I don't know," answered Serge in thoughtfulness. "Guess I would want to wake up."

"Why?" I questioned, taken by surprise.

"Imagine that everything you knew has passed, no friends, nothing you could start from. It's like a second life without closing the first one, you don't have a reason to be alive anymore," answered umbreon. "I don't believe in some magical forces like destiny, but living without any destination is just pointless waiting until your time end."

"I hope that this flareon will be more positive then you, a suicidal flareon won't much help after all," I said, feeling my fur slightly standing up on hearing the word 'destiny'. Only Sonya proved that she can see him too. What if Sonya was also the creation of my imagination? She appeared and disappeared so suddenly. What if everything I saw was just in my head and in real-world I was just an eevee lying somewhere after I hit my head into something hard.

No, no, no, enough, my mind was freaking me out sometimes. Maybe I am a little tired having ideas like that and the unreal events I was going through was giving me some extra stupid ideas.

But what if? If I was lying there and my parents were just hearing my speaking during the sleep about my unreal friends, Destiny, Metro and curse?

Crazy idea, sad idea.

Or maybe it was some drunk party with Serge and I was still unconscious lying vomiting in some bush. Maybe my whole life kept happening on hundreds if not thousands of different worlds of the unconscious, dead and brain damaged events and no one even notices where the beginning of one is and the end of another?

Okay, now for real brain, enough. I am not in a hurry to madness and thinking like that was like a shortcut to losing my mind. I am Zar, that should be enough.

"I think that we should go through her awakening completely sober," said umbreon suddenly finding in his tail another small cane with a portion of I already knew what. He held it behind his fang preventing it from breaking and realising its precious liquid. "Everyone take a shot."

Umbreon walked to Liss giving her his tail.

"Wow, your tail is completely stiff, how many canes did you storage in there?" questioned a surprised Liss, finding a single cane for herself and holding it in her muzzle in a similar manner to Serge.

"Enough to celebrate after we return to the pack, still not enough to be high for most of the day," answered the dark-type, walking towards me and drawing a tail near my head so I could find a cane for myself too. Then he walked to Cera, but she still was doing psychic and didn't even notice him so he backed away.

"To the not suicidal flareon," cheered umbreon, breaking the cane and gulping the drink. I followed his steps, but just when alcohol passed my throat my face twisted into a grimace followed by rising warm in my chest.

"That was stronger than last time," I barely said.

"Of course, so I can carry less and still achieve the same effect, yet it also disappears as soon as it hits. I save better ones for later," laughed the umbreon, fluffing his tail hiding the rest of canes deep in his bushy fur.

"Oh, Cera will kick our butts seeing that we just drank for such an important moment, we're just about to awaken an ancient eeveelution," I said, sitting down before Cera and her patient.

"No fear, Serge here," laughed umbreon taking a seat next to me.

"So am I," added glaceon, sitting next to her mate and altogether started observing the espeon at work and flareon at lying. At first, it was an easy and absorbing task, later on, the ground became a bit shakily, unstable and I felt that I started slightly 'float'.

"Oh, looks like Zar already feels it," smirked umbreon, nuzzling me.

"Nah, not that much, " I denied shaking my head, yet I totally felt it. "The sitting is bad, I could use something nicer like..."

I wondered and looked around at the grass around, The grass started to grow taller and stiffer forming more comfortable sitting and supporting me from sides so I was floating from side to side anymore.

Serge and Liss kept looking at me with wide-open eyes seeing the grass morph its shape and size to prove maximum of comfort.

"Shit, I drunk more than I thought," said umbreon, blinking rapidly. "Do you see what I see?"

"Like wha?" I questioned.

"Did you made a seat from the grass, just out of nowhere?" asked Liss with disbelief.

I looked at what I was sitting at.

"No," I answered. "It's da ordinary bush."

The seat morphed again changing into the ordinary bush but without losing its supporting shapes.

"Are you sure about that?" asked again Serge and I firstly glared on him and then on the bush next to me.

"Kay you got me, I'm feein a bit drunk, it da tree, I guess," I blurred and checked if I was right, the thing I was almost lying on was tall and with a wide crown above my head, it had to be a tree. Yet the faces of my friends were telling me that I was wrong again. "Oh, do no make fun of me. Am no so blind."

"Sure, it the tree," approved Liss nodding yet the embrace of the tree was so cosy that I barely noticed whatever she was doing. I wasn't sleeping, just tired of using my eyes so I closed them, napping.

I still could hear Liss and Serge talking, but I didn't focus enough to understand their words simply enjoying the sudden emptiness of my mind, not disturbed by any screaming thoughts. The discussion ice and dark type had become more intense when suddenly became completely silent.

Instead, I hear steady steps on the grass and I started to feel the heat rising on the front of my body, as if the intensive sun found its way through the leaves. I opened my eyes with a mind much clearer than when I was closing them. I lost a bit of sense of time, but the sky was a shade darker than before. But it wasn't the sun that increased the temperature. I saw that Liss, Serge and Cera slowly move away from the laying flareon, the grass under fire-type was already turned to ashes and the circle of burned plants around her slowly grew in size. I quickly jumped on my paws and joined the backing group of my friends. The temperature seemed to speed up in rising and the drop of sweat started to form on my forehead while glaceon already was completely wet and speed up making more distance from the source of heat.

On the mane and tail of fire type flames, the blue fire started to dance, spreading around and gaining in size.

"Hide in the hole!" shout Cera jumping back exactly into the small hole in the ground, but still enough to fit as four. Everyone quickly followed and I barely managed to get inside before the explosion filled the air. The shock wave broke every tree in the area as if were dry sticks and before they even could fall to the ground the air filled the blue flame eating everything that could be burned.

Liss screamed burnt by the wave of heat and so I rapidly patted my tail as grey smoke started to rise from it. The fire raised higher into the air so the temperature lowered a bit to take a breath without burning the organs inside.

"The fuck we just wake!" the umbreon shouted through the cracking burning wood.


	27. CH27 'The Road Ahead'

All together, we stretched our necks to look out of the hole to the wide circle of burnt ground, there was nothing but a standing flareon with an aureola-like blue flame burning between her pointed ears. She wasn't facing us, but she was looking into the sky then, she slowly dropped her head lower and looked at the ashen ground. I could see her rapidly blinking in what seemed to be a surprise and the fire above her head disappeared without a sign. The fire type sat down and slowly observed her surroundings, breathed deeply and all of sudden flipped over to her back and started to roll around in the ash she created, laughing loudly and rising clouds of grey dust.

We looked at ourselves, still hidden in the hole, silently agreeing to leave the hiding hole. Carefully, and one by one, we walked out of the hole and approached the rolling fire type. She didn't seem to notice us so we waited patiently until she stops playing on the ground, laughing.

"What?" she suddenly asked, but staying on her back.

I wasn't expecting it, anyone wasn't expecting such a direct question, and we all just stood in place pretending to take a breath to say anything, but then flareon spoke again.

"Of course they are waiting, it's not hurting them," her voice sounded much more livid then I could expect from ancient evolution. "I can have my five minutes! I wasn't moving since forever. Yeah, I wouldn't like to wait in their place, but I am not."

"I have a slight feeling that everyone who deals with curse ends up crazy," whispered Liss.

"Who is crazy!?" flareon on hers paws flareon facing us. "Oh, you are all eeveelutions! Everyone from the pack? Oh my, so we are producing now such exemplary eons? How much time it passed!? I can recognise these espeon shapes, you have to be from Terid line, you have his eyes."

"Terid?" repeated Liss.

"An espeon from my times," snorted the flareon. "Great partner, a pity that he lacked trust, we were so close." Dreamed up the fire type, looking into the sky. "Oh, a blue umbreon! I mean, partly blue... rings are blue... and eyes are different. I think that I could even see the guy that would be your descent, we had only two eons with unnatural colouration, neither of them were umbreon."

"Terid was the one who collected shining stones to the den," breathed Cera.

"So he finally found some use to them! Great! Looks like I was wrong telling him, 'there is no sense to steal from those crystals', I doubted they can be used to anything," laughed fire type.

"He stole them?" asked surprised Cera.

"Of course! There was a lot of shit happening these times, end of the world and stuff. Perfect time to explore some places you would never normally go," nodded flareon lowering her voice. "Places where everything lives that you wouldn't want to meet face to face, especially while stealing things. Anyway, what your names? I am Rea the Bluefire, protector of the pack, significative of Rising Sun, Cursed One and elder of Fire Rocks. I mean, if they still exist, obviously. But you can call me Rea," said Rea.

"Cera."

"Zar."

"Lissandre, Liss for short."

"Serge."

We said our names one by one. I kind of knew who flareon was before, or was guessing who she is.

"Uh, no titles, anyone? I feel kind of embarrassed now that I went with full stuff," said sheepishly flareon looking down.

"Don't worry, I heard about you earlier," I said immediately getting fire type attention.

"Oh, you did!?" flareon said excitedly. "Let me guess, there is some tale? Small eevees hear it before going to sleep? Am I famous?!

"Not really, I heard about it accidentally. I spend a night in Fire Rocks and unfortunately had to sleep next to some enthusiast of forgotten history," I cooled her optimism.

"The legend about grey-eyed is popular and told to young before sleep," marked Cera.

"The legend about the grey-eyed? But that's the story I started to tell," said sadly Rea sitting down. "He never even was in the pack, he just walked by. Not fair."

"You knew him?!" gasped Serge before I managed to do it but umbreon quickly added in a less surprised tone. "What you mean he wasn't even in the pack?"

"He never entered it, I met him during one of the many journeys of my group. We met far away from the homelands and travelled together," the flareon started a tale. "Though we didn't travel long, a few days barely. At first, he seemed to be an umbreon that went a little insane. I would say, typical for this type. The curse wasn't so generally know in those times so nobody expected him to be the most cursed thing that ever walked on those ground."

The words of Tera about pack prising the Void and dancing around flames echoed in my mind at the realisation that everyone patron and icon of historical pride wasn't even part of the pack. Just eon that fell in the curse.

"Even more cursed than Metro?" asked Liss.

"Who is Metro?" answered with question Rea cocking her head.

"The Eye of the Night," explained Cera, rising the paw drawing the circle 'eye' in the air.

"He changed his name? Weird, it didn't say anything to me," wondered flareon, scratching herself behind the long ear. "But yes and no, the Eye isn't cursed at all. That's why it couldn't be more cursed, yet it has some control over the corruption, but it's not the source of it. That small yet important fact that tricked me once and got me imprisoned. The 'legendary' eon was the one who became the source of the corruption and kept spreading it around him, that's also the reason for the anomaly that affected me. You know, blue flame and stuff like surge desire to turn everything to ashes." She finished rising aggressively her voice. "Besides, I am fine."

"At least we finally know that he was an umbreon," said Serge, and the muscles on his back almost unnoticeably tensed at the change in Rea's tone.

"Oh no, not just an umbreon," Rea shook her head back to her friendly tone. "The void changed him to the bone, he was changing his type depending on the element he had contact with. Moonlight changed him into umbreon, sunlight into espeon, water to vaporeon, the rest you can guess."

"Sound cool," hummed Liss.

"Maybe, but it wasn't. Rather fucked up. I had to change a lot of things in this story to interest anyone, still, it seems like a blurry dream. So now, it's more popular than me," breathed Rea and shrugged. "Maybe now as I returned... I mean, you made me come back, I can catch some of the fame."

"We can't go back to rescue the pack just yet," protested Serge. "We have to find how to kill Metro first, then we can go to the pack."

"Wait, what?" questioned Rea. "Zar...,"

"Serge," corrected umbreon patted me in the back. "Leafeon is Zar."

"Excuse me," apologized for her mistake flareon and turned her eyes to me. "Can you imagine that the Eye thinks you are the descendant of the legend?" She laughed and looked back at umbreon. "We have to 'rescue' the pack? From what?"

"From the curse obviously," breathed Cera and her ear twitched hearing question she agnized as stupid.

"The curse in my pack?" Rea questioned unbelievingly. "But how it gets there? The Eye did it?!"

"No, not really, it seemed quite surprised at the news too. The curse was brought by two eeveelutions...,"

"So the returning legend is no joke? But it died! And there are two of them!?" acquired information, the flareon thinking deeply. I had an urge to say that I am related to them too but decided to keep it, for now, the rest of my friends also kept it to themselves. "So that is what the Eye meant by saying that releasing me will clean a mess. I have to burn my kind to win with the curse. That's terrible! I wanted to wake up to rest, not to fight again! Not against my pack!"

"We are not talking about killing them but realising them from the corruption!" espeon raised her voice. "Do not even think about such a tragic solution."

"The only solution," shook her head flareon. "No one before managed to free itself from her touch."

"Her touch?" noticed Liss knitting her brows. Rea blinked and licked her nose before answering.

"Giratina, though I don't know what this term supposed to mean it's something above Metro," I answered before fire-type could say anything. Rea raised her ears and nodded twice while the rest of the group looked at me questionably, I tried to defend myself from their looks and added. "Metro mentioned her once, where I met him for the first time."

"I have to comprehend that all this curse is some pokemon trick?" queried Cera with doubt in her voice. "Because I guess that the term means some pokemon, am I correct?"

"Well, there is where the whole problem with curse lays," appealed Rea. "It's quite impossible to reach this pokemon, it can not be found. Also, I am not sure if we would be able to do anything with her if we would find her. If she is above Metro and it still out of reach..."

As Rea kept talking about how impossible can impossibly be to the circle of ashes, in marched another familiar face. Destiny walked the whole way to us rising his paws unnaturally high and then quickly sat down behind the Rea. He kept sitting there for a while looking as if he would listen to her with great interest, then he looked at me and pointed at Rea in 'what is even that' manner.

I couldn't just start talking with Destiny next to everybody so I just rolled my eyes. White leafeon stood up and walked closer, but as he was passing next to flareon he gently smacked her nose with his tail. Rea powerfully sneezed in half of the sentence making Destiny giggle like a cub while the rest of the group discreetly exchanged amused glances.

"The spirit of adventure has arrived, time to move on," coaxed Destiny and looked at flareon again. "Where did you find this fossil? She is older then Sonya but she is also eon which makes her super old. How she has the nerve to be still alive?"

I just kept trying to look normal avoiding focusing my eyes on Destiny, staring blankly in the empty air could be weird.

"Oh yeah, I forgot," breathed Destiny. "I kept coming in all the wrong moments. I should catch you somewhere alone so it would be so weird to you. The problem is that I wait patiently until you be alone and it just can happen. Also how much you can talk about this curse. Curse here, curse there, the curse is bad everyone is fucked. You even barely use some synonyms, just the curse over and over like a record."

 _Record?_ I wondered, making a questioning face.

"Don't ask me, Sonya just kept calling me that when I talked to her too much," said the copy of me.

Destiny sat down next to Rea and quickly took her appearance trying to mimic her movements and facial expressions. He was good at it.

"Things I do for fun," snorted Destiny, and changed his appearance again, this time into a taller and stronger built pokemon, Sonya. "We saw what was happening in the city, it would be good to find our scythe-head and ask a few questions. Even if I am your destiny, I mean, something that doesn't exist. I would prefer not to end with such a fate as to be consumed by Metro. Like every destiny I have to be fulfilled, spending eternity with some overgrown parasite quite misses the point."

The white leafeon moved his attention again to Rea, and listened to her talking about some espeon who, in search for the source of corruption, lost his mind.

"Did you know that flareons with diarrhoea can shoot fire from their backside at height of the full-grown mountain ash tree? Oh wait, it's your knowledge, you know," said Destiny, reminding me of this much important information in this situation, information I learned helping Cyrus the Sylveon with healing eons. It wasn't the nicest memory.

"Why did I remind myself about it in such random moments," I wondered as my mind kept surprising me.

"Wh-what?" asked Cera, making me realise the mistake I just made answering to Destiny and when white leafeon realised it too, he laughed loudly.

"Ehm, I mean..," I tried to come up with something. "I mean that I have an idea of where to go now."

"Wow, really?" asked the glaceon surprised. "Where to Zar?"

Before answering, I looked at Destiny with pleading eyes, yet pretended to be checking area looking for directions.

"Eh," breathed Destiny, shook his head giving up to my pleading. "You have to go this way," Destiny pointed the direction with his leafy tail. "The place is called Northern Oblast."

"I think we have to move that-a-way," I said, pointing the same direction Destiny did. All eeveelutions looked where I pointed and then back at me.

"Why there?" asked Rea frowning. "What's there?"

"Sonya lives there," I simply answered.

"An absol you met while you were lost? What about her?" questioned Cera, seeming to be confused.

"An absol!?" gasped Liss, bristling her fur. "First Metro now absol, why can't we have some nice destination. I hate these crummy bastards."

"I still don't know what you are talking about," chimed in Rea. "Why would we need some absol now?"

"She is the last survivor of the ruined city, she lived there before it was ruined and she can help," I tried to explain, however, I hadn't clear explanation prepared for this moment, I was all my guesses.

"I highly doubt it. The city was ruined already in my times, a few generations before me, any absol wouldn't live so long. Besides, I highly doubt there were any survivors," kept grumble Rea. "Also, you say that going this way, right in that way would live us to this certain absol?"

"Do not question my methods!" said Destiny aggressively, and hit her in the nose again making her sneeze just like before. Rea skewed her eyes looking questionably at her nose.

"Northern Oblast is the place we have to reach," I said back to Rea.

"I did not expect you to know such wildlands," reasoned flareon.

"Because we don't know, but Sonya knows," Destiny answered her as a phantom counterparty in the discussion.

"Uh, yeah," I nodded and walked in the direction I, or rather Destiny pointed. "Anyway, we have to go."

"Ah, I can smell it again, the spirit of the journey... *sneeze*," Serge was interrupted with quick boop in the nose from white leafeon. Destiny feast his mind looking at umbreon wiping his nose with a paw.

"Thinks I do for fun," he said to himself and then turned to me. "See ya later." He waved goodbye and trotted away to disappear between trees. However, he stopped halfway and turned around running to Rea and bopping her too.

"For fuck sake, what the fack is wrong with that?!" she screamed wiping her nose visibly being at the edge of patience. This time Destiny quickly left the ashen clearing, disappearing.

* * *

At the start of the walk, Rea took a lead and tried to increase our tempo, but her breathing quickly became heavy and after saying a few words about her terrible condition she slowed down and let Serge and Liss, moving to the back of our group behind me and Cera. She seemed to drift away into her thoughts to the point I had to look back from time to time to check if she was still following. Serge and Liss started a long and energetic discussion about each other's neighbours, Cera seemed to listen to them and randomly join their conversation.

I tried to listen too, but some words seemed to just fly into my head with one ear and leave another, and I had already lost track about what they were talking about.

Destiny showed up a few times too. He didn't walk so close like before and just kept correcting our route to more comfortable terrain, also making everyone convinced that I know the way. He also promised to find shelter for the night, as Cera foresaw heavy rainfall that had to start in the night.

When Serge and Liss talked out all their neighbours they started to play riddles. It was Serge's turn.

"The more you take, the more you leave behind. What am I?"

There was a moment of silence when the rest tried to find the answer.

"Footsteps," answered Cera.

"Yeah," nodded disappointed Serge.

"Me now," shot Liss and licked her mouth. "What has no beginning, end, or middle?"

"Serge's desire to drink," I joked, joining the game.

"A circle," said Serge, getting a glare from his mate.

"And how did you know so quickly!?" glaceon asked.

"I told you this earlier, you have to think about something by yourself," laughed umbreon and licked Liss on her forehead and he stayed in this position.

"How many times will you do that before you learn not to lick my forehead," wondered Liss, as Serge's tongue froze to the glaceon's icy crown. Cera's eyes glowed blue for a moment and the umbreon's tongue was free again.

"Now it's your turn Zar," encouraged glaceon.

"Honestly I don't have anything prepared," I started, but the glaceon icy glance let me know that I have to try anyway.

"Okay, let me think," I looked around looking for some inspiration. When I spotted one dark object on the bush I got an idea. "What is it? It's everyone's prey, but caught too early can defeat anyone."

"Can or will?" asked umbreon.

"Can, it depends on the hunter's luck," I answered, guessing that the umbreon's interest always was rising when hunting was involved.

"It's a berry, too early mean that before it's full-grown and green," guessed glaceon. "I can't remember how often I've gotten ill because of eating some."

"Nah, you just saw what Zar looked at," babbled Cera.

"I did not!" neglected ice-type.

"Okay so let's see if you guess this one. What is it? Upside down, it holds the world, lying down it become home and when it's alive, it keeps us alive, but it dies every year," challenged Cera.

"It doesn't rhyme," noticed ice-type.

"I just made it," excused herself espeon. "Still, you have to guess it."

"Okay, so. Is it a mountain?" tried glaceon.

"How a mountain can die?!"

"I thought it's a metaphor."

"It is, but still what aspect of the mountain connected to death?"

"Is it a tree?" guessed Serge. "When the snow comes it dies and when it dies and fall to the side it can become a shelter."

"Yes, it's the tree," nodded Cera unhappy. "Even in games, you have to remind about competitive of our types."

"Because I out-guessed you?" laughed dark-type. "You have to be kidding me."

Cera scowled, cocking her head to the side.

"I am," she said.

"Oh. Hey, maybe Rea want to play too?" asked Serge, looking at the out last companion.

"I can try, but mine won't be so easy," taunted the fire-type, smiling.

"Try us," encouraged the psychic-type and discreetly winked to me.

"Okay, never resting, never still I moving silently from hill to hill, I do not walk, run or trot, all is cool where I am not. What am I?"

 _Sunshine_. Said the psychic voice of Cera in my mind making me smile, but before I could answer glaceon shouted.

"Wind!"

"No, that's not a wind. You see, it's not so easy as it seems to be," giggled the fire-type standing proudly.

"It's sunshine," I repeated what Cera read from Rea's mind, and the flareon immediately lowered her ears.

"You knew this one, you heard it before?" queried flareon, looking at me suspiciously.

"I just guessed," I said back, but it didn't convince the flareon who shook her head and seemed completely oblivious to Cera's wide smile.

"Sure," murmured the fire type and lowering her voice she said in the ground's direction. "Wrong proposition, think better next time."

 _Weird. She seems to be okay, but at some moments she reminds me about Vilastraaday talking to himself. Does the curse always attack the mind? How does it feel to be mad? Is it just some extra voice in your head, or you start to see things in your surroundings and can't tell if they are real or not, never noticing when your behaviour becomes weird?_

Soon we reached the edge of the forest, that, like a long, wide ring covered the mountain's foot we left a few days ago. The mountains that kept separating the world from the pack looked pretty from here. Towering over the horizon was the wall of grey and white, scratching the sky with its sharp peaks, impressive even if we could see only a small part of the whole mountain range. One peak on the left side almost disappearing completely behind the clouds was at least three times higher than the rest. Overlayed with snow looked almost like the clouds themselves, blue surfaces of ice, too steep so snow could cover them betrayed the mountain helping us to see it. The grand peak was one of eight peaks that shoots higher than the rest of the range

"White Slopes looks so distant from here," breathed Liss nostalgically, looking at the highest peak. "I see them from this angle for the first time. Now it looks so hard to reach, unattainable, impossible to climb on. It is completely different on the opposite side, where the river flows, jumping, creating tiny waterfalls and lakes. The foot of the mountain is long, regularly rising into the mountain creating wide halls and when it's too steeply to climb higher. The mountain opens many entrances to the caves and tunnels inside you can use to reach a peak."

"It seems that the mountain welcomes us, but to outsiders says 'stay back'" said Serge.

"It was larger in my times, whole mountain range had and ice on the top making it at least twice as high as it is now," shot Rea looking with us at the view. "A lot of ice melted, mountains became much easier to cross. If the Metro would try to conquer the pack again there would be no chance to hold his servants."

"It looks quite hard to pass," said Cera, looking at flareon.

"Yes, it for sure is hard to pass. Yet it's not the same as impossible to pass," answered Rea. "We had to worry just about a few entrances to our pack, now we would have to worry about whole mountains."

"Are you sure it was higher?" questioned Cera, looking suspicious at flareon.

"Uh, yes. I think, guess so," babbled fire type. "Or maybe it was always like this? I don't know anymore. Images in my head tells me I saw them climbing high into the sky with ice, but these memories seem so strange and unfamiliar."

"Like a dream?" suggested umbreon.

"A dream," repeat Rea in remembrance. "Even if it had to be a dark dream, a nightmare."

Rea shook her head and her sight focused as she left her train of thoughts.

"Doesn't matter now if it was a dream. I am just nostalgic," she said. "I always hoped to wake up again, but deep down I knew I would stay Metro's slave forever. Now when I am back, my heart rips apart at the idea of leaving this view behind my back. I would love to run in the opposite way then we go now."

"But we told you that we can't go straight to the pack," reminded her Liss.

"I know," conceded Rea heavily. "But it doesn't make anything easier. Okay, I'll stop complaining. Continue to lead to your absol, Zar."

"It's not my absol," I marked glancing over Cera and turned away from the view of the home, going the way Destiny wanted. "I just think she can appear helpful."

"What do you expect after finding her?" questioned Serge rising his ears. "From what you tell us, your last encounter wasn't the most friendly."

"Absols are cunts," expressed her opinion glaceon and spit on the ground. Seeing this, Serge sighed heavily and Cera rolled her eyes while Rea opened her eyes wider, pointing her ears, stopping waving her tail from side to side and smiled stupidly expressing her complete surprise in ice-type attitude. She looked over the rest of us trying to find an answer on our faces what kind of emotion it is for Liss, but before she could ask Liss continued. "They can't do anything of their own, just steal our achievements using their strength. Also whenever we, glaceons, gather and go together to take back caves, part of the land or anything some of us lose to them, they're gonna run leaving everything destroyed. Anything that they take can't be retrieved in one piece. But the most annoying is their stupid pride. Their time of greatness ended very long ago. Now it's just a bunch of unwanted vegetating mooches, their honour and craves for greatness there is the pride of is long gone. Ambushes and attacking lonely eons is their style of life, they are just like bigger and more dangerous sneasels. Soon they will end."

"Interesting how species can change over time," commented Rea, carefully listening to Liss. "Looks like I was living off their greatness, but back then, they weren't enemies of the pack. Though it's interesting you say that they will end. I remember absols as powerful fighters, one mature male worth dozen of mature eons."

"They were, but we are eeveelutions. The matter of our species is to adapt and so we do. New tactics and ways to deal with the threat slowly build an advantage. After all, we are ice types on ice while they are dark types. Deal with them in the day, survive the night covered in a snowstorm. They have strength, but we set the rules now, glaceons have a chance to claim whole mountains once again," said the excited glaceon, smiling to herself at the chance of a better future.

Though the White Slopes themselves were quite populated and there was no risk that any other species would claim it, though the rest of the mountains were quite hard to protect. Long in every direction, with hundreds of caves, mini valleys and passages they were very hard to control. It had to be patrolled in groups and complicated terrain could make a group disappear for long weeks before they finished their lookout and could go to another part of the mountain range. In the time between patrols, some species that didn't mind cold climate could take some terrain. Some intruders were kept to become food, some were a parasite that had to be wiped out, rarely some species appeared to be an equal opponent, it was rare when someone was allowed to stay. Eeveelutions were territorial, they loved to have clear ground with obvious borders that define the pack. The pack was created with the region, inside of the regions eons liked to split depending on their position in the pack, groups they belonged, clubs, families and more. Eons liked to have differences and being grouped by these differences, while glaceons, by living at the edge of the pack and having to deal with outsides quickly become superiors in territory thing. Sometimes going into controversy icy eons ruthlessly tried to keep everyone from crossing the mountain. For eons from the middle or another central region, it was hard to understand. Like, who minded that few snorunt lived in a frozen valley where nothing could grow and the ground was completely useless. For residents of the White Slopes hearing about other pokemon living somewhere in their reach was something that boiled their blood besides living among the snow. Mountains were their region, it had to belong to the pack, to serve only eons. Living from the youngest years, knowing Liss helped me to understand the cold logic of glaceons. It just had to be this way and it had good reasons behind. After all, every pokemon had to eat and reproduce. Leaving a small group of outsiders could on our grounds create serious problems in the future when they reproduce and grow in number, they will need more food and single valley won't be enough for them any longer. Terminating everything kept saving the pack from future problems. The middle would understand it too when its territory was in danger, but then it could be already too late.

Even besides the effort glacons put to keep their region, they are not always successful. The biggest threat are sneasels, living hidden, they are almost impossible to eliminate. Absols are such a danger to glaceons, small in number they have to carefully move in mountains as every loss will be very painful for the group. However, they are so annoying for eons because of being much better in combat. The White Slopes have to organise more glaceons to deal with them. They are also a moving group not claiming any ground and the fact they are dark type makes it very hard to foresee where they go as espeons cannot help.

"I hope I will see it," said Rea, supporting Liss. "I want to see the pack the strongest as it can be."

"Guess you have to go for another hibernation then spoke Cera. "I don't want to put Liss down, but it never happens that whole mountains will be safe. To produce so many glaceons, every eevee in the pack would need to evolve into ice type and this trend had to stay for a dozen generations. Also, the mountain can prove very little of the food capping the number of eons living there. Even today the White Slopes are unable to produce enough food for itself and have to take food from different regions. Besides that, mountains are a kind of filter between the pack and the rest of the world. They limit the number of new pokemon coming to our land, but closing them completely put us in the risk of hunger. They also stop different pokemon from flying from our hunting grounds. I think that a dangerous group of outsiders like absols should be eliminated, but total control over a mountain range would choke the rest of regions, usually more important than the White Slopes."

"You talk like a typical eon from the Middle," noticed flareon.

"I am from the Middle," said back espeon.

"I never liked much eons from the Middle, too much politics, too much fooling around and talking," memorised Rea.

"Middle is the strongest of all regions now. Looks like using the brain paid off," stated espeon haughtily.

"If using the brain could decide of greatness, then the strongest region would be Sunny Flatland at eh southern oblast, the unofficial capital of all espeons," assured Rea, looking at Cera amused. "I guess that today may be forgotten, but the Middle was once called differently. The Great Clearing, home of leafeons. It was a very dense part of the forest uncomfortable for any other eeveelutions but leafeons. However with time and growing talents grass types transformed this part into heaven for our species, adjusting the environment and multiplying food. Living among leafeons all eeveelutions grown healthier and more cubs could reach adulthood. Soon the Great Clearing became just a small part of rapidly growing Middle."

 _The Great Clearing, I heard this name from Tera's mouth. Yet I still didn't know what place Rea and Tera had in mind. I never noticed anything that could look like the work of another leafeon. Maybe it was hidden? Just like Tera's afterlife tree, waiting to be discovered to someone who learned enough. I hoped that Tera returns soon, I had to ask if leafeons really were the core of the pack, and if they were, how they disappeared._


	28. CH28 'On The Way'

A/N Sorry for long wait ;c

A/N The Poll ended, you decided that Serge should stay as Serge and so I won't change his name.

* * *

Before the afternoon, we lost sight of the mountains and found ourselves in the ocean of trees, bushes and clearings of yellow tall dry grass that hadn't time yet to come back alive after the snow melted. Our group walked free from troubles, there were no hunting inhabitants of this land or their potential prey.

The group was walking silently, the themes for talks seemed to end for now. Sporadically someone commented about the environment, or Rea reminded herself about someplace and was thinking out loud how time can change the ground, with who she was here or what happened there. These weren't interesting tales and quickly became ignored. Not that it would stop Rea from keep mentioning shreds of the past.

Cera had a rather concerned facial expression wondering about something deeply or was it her natural face. It was always hard to say as both emotions looked very similar on espeon face.

Liss and Serge marched together for most of the time, enjoying each other's company. Snuggles and stealing kisses become an inseparable aspect of these two, making me think that our company is the only thing that keeps them from more advanced ways of showing affection to each other. Maybe that was the reason why Cera pretended she wasn't paying much attention to her surroundings. Maybe Liss's behaviour was a pressure on her while? From my observations, Cera always prefers a different style of showing affection, without witness, in some distant and closed place with previously prepared text to say. Or I guessed it was previously prepared, after all, she was an espeon and her mind could work way faster avoiding pauses and stutters I usually had if I had to say something without preparing words in my head before.

I decided to nudge against her to brighten up her mood.

Cera seemed quite surprised and taken off guard. Means, I didn't guess her thoughts and she was thinking about something deeply. I just interrupted her. After a moment of hesitation she needed to understand the situation, she returned the nudge smiling at me, but quickly returned to whatever she was thinking about.

I gave her some space and noticed Liss winking at me meaningfully, approving my action. She wanted to add some more, but then Rea reminded herself something from the past and started talking about the landscape that was familiar to the one from her memory.

Before nightfall, we reached the wide lake. Destiny gave me instructions that it was the best place to take a rest, but we had to leave this place before sunrise, however, he didn't say why we should leave before sunrise. Word by word I repeated Destiny words to the rest of the group. Luckily, everyone was too tired to ask why sunrise was so important and started making the lake's beach as comfortable as it could be, digging small holes in the sand. The sand was warm from the intense sun during the day.

Liss and Serge bathed in the lake, glaceon to cool down, umbreon to clean himself off all the dust his long fur gathered on the road. During the bath, Serge noticed few magikarps swimming in the lake. In such small water environment, there was no chance for them to evolve, but they could serve as food to local pokemon and us.

We didn't have any great swimmers in our group and Rea didn't even want to come close to the water, so I asked Cera to catch us a few water types using psychic. She agreed and soon few of water pokemon hanged hopelessly, airlifted from the water by the force visible only by a weak blue glow around the prey and the eyes of the catcher. Cera wasn't looking very happy by using her psychic for such a task, but she didn't say a word.

When our food was away from the water and lay helplessly on the sand, Rea used her flame to make them a bit taster and to stop their wiggle. To my surprise, her flames now had the normal, healthy colour of the sun instead of blinding white-blue. Yet, I didn't ask her about it.

When our stomachs were full and only fishbones were left on the sand, we curled up together to sleep. Only Rea sat down alone, she probably wasn't feeling close enough to sleep with us, or she had her reasons.

"I take first watch," flareon said. Nobody protested, taking it as a fair decision. After all, all of us woke up much earlier today than she did.

During the night, the small gaps between us disappeared completely. Well except for glaceon for being a cold one, with the lack of sun, the temperature of the air decreased and the sand lost its warmth too. I wanted to cover myself with my tail, but someone took it and used it as a blanket hugging it tightly. Drawing up my paws and being in contact with two other eeveelutions I finally found a position that was comfortable and warm enough to sleep.

When I finally managed to fall asleep I wasn't dreaming good dreams, they weren't bad either. They were very confusing, a complete mix of everything, the chaos that wasn't allowing my mind to rest. If I would be conscious enough to ask Cera to make my dreams better, I would do it, but my dream caught me tightly giving me no choice but to watch them falling into deeper and deeper confusion.

In the middle of the night, a whisper woke me up, but I didn't move or open my eyes.

"Go back to sleep shiny darkling," said Rea.

"You had your watch, I stood up to change you. Get some rest," answered her Serge.

"There is no need for it. I slept so long that more night has to pass before I feel brave enough to close my eyes."

"Are, you afraid of sleeping?" even if Serge was whispering, surprise in his voice was easy to notice.

"There is no calm rest for abominations like me, once you take a step toward the void there is no way back. During sleep, the mind is weak and easy to manipulate and even if the time has passed, the memories of what was happening when the pack had to fight Metro are still very fresh."

"Terrible times you had to live in."

"Any legends you ever heard can not tell about the horrors the pack had to survive those days. The void making its way toward you, using the paws and fangs of your fallen friends, friends I had to burn away from this world, to tear them away from calling from beyond."

"Is it what made you crazy?" asked umbreon directly, causing a moment of silence.

"No, not yet. But it had to start there. Still, I think I deal with it quite good, trying to think clearly."

"You are. Are those memories the thing that makes you so reluctant to the idea of defying Metro and fighting back the curse?"

"I don't want history to repeat."

"Do you think we are in danger? Why won't you warn us?"

"I see the bond you share, you share a different kind of love in the whole group, I worry only about your leafeon."

"What about him?"

"Metro thinks he is descended from the line that could control the curse even better than Metro itself. It also doesn't change and is impossible to discuss with, once Metro got such an idea, it will never think differently," Rea breathed in the cold night breeze and slowly let it go. "Go back to sleep, the more we talk the worse their sleep is."

"Say, what does it mean for him that Metro think that way?"

"It means that in order for him to survive, Metro has to be right."

* * *

Just like Destiny suggested, we left the lake behind before the sun could appear above the horizon. Nobody liked waking up early, Rea seemed to be the most awake, while Serge the most tired. Umbreon rarely slept at night, usually waiting for morning to rest; we would need to change the schedule to a similar one I had walking with Sonya so he could feel well-rested. Waking up when the sun was high and going to sleep when the moon started to lose its shine.

When the sun was significantly above the horizon, everyone immediately became wide awake when the air was pierced by a deep and resounding roar that made leaves to fall down the trees.

"What was that?!" asked Cera dramatically, looking back in the direction where the roar was heard. Worrying was that it seemed to be from the lake we left.

"Sounded kind of familiar," wondered Rea.

"The reason I wanted you to leave before sunrise," from out of nowhere Destiny rejoined our group. "Worry not, after a close meeting with Sonya he lost his sense of smell, also his eyes aren't good enough to find the track of eons. Not that she really was fighting him, it was kind of luck. He tried to eat her, but instead, she ended up in his nose. It's not the most enjoyable to have a pokemon full of blades in the nose."

"Tyranitar," Rea finally reminded herself, recognising the roar.

"Not some tyranitar, but a pet of Metro himself. Gzot Soul Breaker in his person, he gave up his loyalty in exchange for the power to the Eye of Night quickly becoming a well-known tyrant," Destiny explained to Rea, without the care she couldn't see or hear him. "Pokemon that lived from the west side of city ruins to the great water called him Soul Breaker because the death he brings is way worse than normal death. When he breaks your body and leave devastated corpse your will is taken to become feast to Gzot, similarly to the Metro he consumes you to pay for his curse. Well, the pokemon that named him like that could even experience that as Gzot purified most of these lands from all the life, that wasn't small enough to be missed."

"It had to be Gzot," said Rea looking a bit scared, I tried to act if I heard it for the first time.

"What is Gzot?" asked Liss, keeping her ears as low as she could, similarly to the rest of eons.

"Ancient beast, the scourge of western lands. Just as tyranitars are normally scary this one is the worst of them all. Huge like a small mountain, his skin thick like dozens of trees, he alone would be able to destroy the pack. Let our hearts guide us through this dark," Rea told us, and I winced slightly at saying she used. The old vaporeon that only could remember what a leafeon was after I evolved into one kept using such sayings.

Destiny looked at Rea skeptically and a bit annoyed, he just said about Gzot, with much greater details.

"If you wanted to shine with knowledge, you could at least use facts instead of trying to scare everyone," commented the white leafeon, but after a moment, he added."Maybe fear won't be that bad after all? While scared there are fewer ideas to go off-road, pee suddenly doesn't call so often and the tempo is faster. By the way," he turned now to me. "This Gzot has a legend just like Rea says but he is old now, Sonya met him and survived without a wound while wounding tyranitar. Sonya is kind of lucky too, but still, there is nothing to be freaked out about. Just a bit more careful."

Destiny, again, gave me his directions, but this time he didn't disappear staying close, we continued our journey to find Sonya. Gzot's roars kept repeating reminding us about his presence and scaring away any signs of tire from our bodies.

"He knows about our presence," said Serge, listening to another mighty roar. "He keeps searching, the distance between each yell is changing, sometimes he is closer, sometimes further."

"Freaking dark type, invisible to psychic," snarled espeon.

"Do you think he will find us?" worried Liss.

"The luck will decide, our luck or his," flareon answered her. Destiny kept listening to the conversation but stayed quiet.

"Metro is the source of his power and Metro wouldn't want to finish us just yet," I marked, though I doubted that putting any trust into Metro had any sense. "Gzot can scream and search, but I think that master won't hear him this time."

"I hope so, I am not interested in meeting all the legends of this world. Even those I have never heard about," breathed Serge.

"Cheer up, imagine how wise you can pretend to be seeing so many wonderful wonders of this world," said glaceon enthusiastically, changing her mood rapidly. "By the way, though we closed the theme with Metro, knowing things about us then I do wonder, am I so typical glaceon to be nothing more than just glaceon?"

A sudden change of theme made everyone take a few more seconds to think about the answer to the ice-type. I doubted that the long pause was needed for anyone in our group, the wait was rather caused by a hope that someone different answers in better words than, for example, I had in mind. By someone everyone meant Serge.

"Not that much," said umbreon shrugging. "You have a bit more humour and commitment than most of eons from mountains."

"A bit?" repeated grumpy Liss.

"A very big bit," answered back umbreon, nuzzling her. "Don't take this so seriously."

"Sure," grunted ice type.

"What can I say. It's neither the place nor the situation to think poetically or romantic. Maybe in the afternoon, but no just after learning that we are on the hunting grounds of some Gzot," excused himself, Serge.

"Returning to the theme of Gzot, is it just me or he took a break in his usually roars?" noticed Cera, making everyone realise that some time had passed since the last forest shaking roar.

"Maybe even such a monster needs sleep?" Liss suggested.

"Cursed ones don't have to neither sleep nor eat, void fuels them,"I shook my head.

"I say, he needed to shut up so he could listen to us," said Rea, lowering her voice to a whisper and looked at me suspiciously. "I didn't mention it's 'voidling'."

"Why would anything like this Gzot look for a few eeveelutions," asked espeon, putting aside Rea's remark.

"It's a beast, unable to communicate or think properly. If it knows about you, it's going to kill you," said Rea.

"You know that from your own experience," breathed out of sudden Destiny, with irritation in his voice, joining the talk. "After all, you are the same 'voidling' desperately holding scraps of what keeps you aware, yet so recklessly talk about others touched by void."

Destiny rushed into the forest grumbling few more words under his breath and a second before he disappears he shot. "Do not rest this night, keep walking north. I don't know why, I just feel that way. Walk, walk, walk."

So Destiny walked between the trees, disappearing from my sight.

Losing a bit of good mood and quitting all talks we marched north and each step seemed to be louder than the previous one, everyone walk carefully placing their paws. Suddenly, even the worst hunters like Cera or Liss became masters of creeping down, while the real master still was Serge and apparently, me.

Grass, bushes, leaves, twigs, no matter what I stepped on or passed by, it didn't make a sound. I was like air, plants before me kept to bend without a rustle making soft pad on the ground I could step one without a sound and stood up behind me.

A whisper could sound like a shout in the silence we and the empty forest created. As long as we were talking, laughing and playing I didn't notice how lifeless these grounds are. They were just like the ruins of the city, lifeless, but the view of trees and grass wasn't so depressing as grey piles of passed civilisation. Yet, without anyone running between those trees, brushing against bushes, rolling in the grass, all these plants seemed to be useless. No difference if they had to exist or disappear tomorrow, there was no one living here to notice that. No one who could feel such a loss. This place was hollow.

I felt kind of stupid for every moment in my life when I felt anger whenever someone stepped or destroyed some kind of plant. After all, single plants weren't important at all.

Here I had an example, the land where the curse purified all living here pokemon and there was nothing that felt right.

 _Hey._ Echoed Cera's voice in my head, who visibly didn't like the idea to stay silent for the rest of the walk.

 _Yeah?_ I called in my thoughts, depending on her to read it.

 _When you were missing... did you met tyranitar?_

 _No, I didn't. Why did you ask?_

 _I was just wondering if you would know what to do if this Gzot would find us._

 _Run I guess_. I laughed in my mind.

 _Running away is risky, they won't be left behind in this adventure. Or we end all together or we never reach the end._

 _In both cases, we end up all together._ I marked. _But I didn't plan to leave anyone. We are all too much connected to live with a loss of anyone._

 _Rea isn't too connected to us._ Pointed espeon.

 _Yeah, I guess that's the one whose loss we would all survive, but I don't want her to die too fast, or at all. I think she can answer to all these creatures like this Gzot._

 _There are more such creatures?!_

 _The corruption is way older than anyone of us, it seems to exist as long as the pack. The Metro said that everyone has a chance to give up to it and use its power. How many pokemon could fall to it through all this time?_

 _Why would they want to go after us? We try to save them!_

 _We will try to end the curse, those who fall for it will end with it. I think that the further we go in this the more dangerous it will get._

Cera stayed silent for a while and when I dared to look at her I saw she was mostly focused on the ground before her while trying to walk silently. In the meantime, I also had occasion to see what others were doing. Rea was really struggling to walk silently, flareon weren't made for this. In case of danger, they had to storm in with a roar and surrounded by blazing flames. Making careful steps and controllably shift weight from paw to another paw was exhausting her way faster than the others. Liss moved closer to Serge and supported him, cooling down the air adjusting it to be comfortable and refreshing how heavy-coated dark type that didn't manage to lose all of his winter furs just yet and kept leaving dark shags of fur whenever he brushed against any bush or branch.

 _Zar?_ Again, Cera called gently using her psychic powers. _If you are the Dark Litter, and we end with corruption, what will you be then?_

The question surprised me, what could happen to me if the corruption would disappear? Theoretically, I had it inside just like Vion, Villa or Azor. I just never discovered it, didn't manage to reach for it and today, I saw enough of the curse to never want to reach for such a disgusting force.

 _Nothing bad will happen. These creatures serve the curse because they fell to it, that doesn't make them the Dark Litter. It's something different. Nothing to be worried about._

I answered her, but honestly, I didn't know if it was true. Was I marching toward my own death?

 _You feel worried. Not since today._ Any emotion couldn't be missed, by the sensible senses of espeon.

 _It because of this journey. I feel like I lost control of anything that is happening around. Before the winter I really felt that I have my life in my paws, but now I just follow what's happening around. I don't even have much to say._

 _But you are leading us._

 _It's not what I meant. I just felt lost inside, we left the pack all of sudden. Then Metro messed with our heads, now we have an ancient eeveelution with us walking to the farthest place known to our species in the glorious mission to fight the evil. We, plant keeper and psychologist, Liss also had a peaceful occupation of checking the thickness of the ice. The only one prepared for it is Serge because he can hunt, but he also has his downsides._

 _And Rea._

 _She may not be enough, also making fish her flame wasn't blue. What if she is not like in legends, her talent was lost somewhere during in prison in Metro? The absol I met, this Sonya made me aware that there is a different kind of 'wild' out there. We are not dominant without the pack, we do not need to meet pokemon cursed be void to end our journey. Pokemon wilder than we, can be enough. Maybe returning to the pack wasn't my destiny in the first place._

 _I thought you don't believe in destiny._

 _I don't... I mean... it's complicated._

 _Do not worry that much, we are right eons in the right places. Best possible, Serge is great amongst umbreons, I am among espeon, Liss is... well, just a glaceon but you are the greatest of all leafeons._

 _I don't have a competition._ I started, but Cera psychically hushed me.

 _Still, you are the best! Worry less, believe in us more. Imagine that we would never leave a pack, you keep us together and we carry on. If we fail, we fail altogether. There won't be anyone left to_ disappoint.

 _Very cheerful way of thinking._ I noticed and snorted.

We continued to walk without a break until the sun disappeared behind the horizon. The sky didn't impatiently turn and so we walked as long as we, expect Serge, could see where were we placing our paws. When the sky turned completely dark, we made a break. I tried to suggest that we should keep going but no one really wanted, also I was quite exhausted to be really persuasively as so we rested.

I didn't even flinch when I appeared on already known dreamland clearing. After all, I knew Tera had to come back. I had to ask her something, but what was it? It was a terrible feeling when you knew you forgot something but couldn't remember what. Damn, it was important!

"Why can I never appear right next to and not have to walk?" I asked, walking to Tera sitting as usual on the white flat stone.

"It's actually a very good question," started Tera when I was closer. "It's not reality, the distance you make doesn't have any meaning. Thanks to this I can see if our connection is stable, walking requires a lot of things to work with each other. If you do it instinctively I can be sure that there is nothing on the way to start training. About the training, it took me a bit longer to decide what to teach you. Path of Thorns is what current situation requires, but there is also a few basics we can't jump over. After all, we just started things with creating pollen. There are more things to do with your leaves, as we aim to prepare you for eventual confrontation, you should learn how to defend yourself."

"As leafeon, we are quite fragile. Like espeons," started Tera standing up and slowly walking while talking. "Many pokemon you will meet rather won't think much of how to hunt you going for the easier way, going straight for the throat. Remember I told you that we should try to avoid fighting and whenever it's possible to try to use this hint, however, I know it won't always be possible. Quite easy and at the same time an effective way of making ourselves a bit less fragile is focusing our strength in the leaves changing them into sharp blades..."

Tera continued talking while I lit up my leaves in green light and swirled them in the air as they became a blur for a moment. I already knew this one and trained it when I had occasion since I returned to the pack.

Tera looked at me critically.

"Quite a primitive form, you should shift more weight to rear paws. You won't jump from front paws! The leaf shouldn't be completely flat during it, curl it a little so it won't break up in the first hard hit!" instructed Tera immediately. "Do not wave them like that, it's not a show of lights!"

She stood right next to me and her leaves also shined in the deep green light.

"Stand just like me, bow these knees a little! One front paw forward... not that one. One rare paw slightly behind, you should have a centre of your weight behind your midsection. Now, longleaf on the forehead to the side and tail have to be high. Okay, it can be," Tera walked a few steps away and examined me. "You should be relaxed in this position, tensing so much will make you tired before you start to really move. Remember, you have to be light as a leaf, you rarely will be heavier one in a fight. Agility, speed and precision.

I tried to stand a bit more relaxed but still, in the position Tera wanted me to be.

"A bit better," she commented. "Fighting with leave blades is a wide theme as learning the whole Path. The 'dance' contains both elements of the Path of Leaves and Thorns. Even practising pollen as we did before can help you, covering your leaves in some kind of pollen can make your hits more painful or put your opponents to sleep if they keep trying to avoid breathing it in. If you learn the Path of Thorns, you will know how to make those leaves poisonous or modify them to be more thorn-like. As I said, there are a lot of ways to use this ability."

"Now look, you will use your tail for attacking, leaf on the forehead doesn't have a possibility to reach similar impact. Also, it's attached to your head, what an idiot would attack with its head first? It the easiest way to blackout."

 _Heh, Sonya._

"So, you lead your cut from your tail, supporting it with much stronger rear legs. You know, like while running, force in the back while you chose the direction with your front paw," kept instructing Tera, though it was quite obvious stuff. "Okay, some practise now. I will land a few hits on you, try to block them."

Tera didn't attack immediately giving me some time to prepare, then she moved forward and attacked slowly from the right, then the left, and below finished in a graceful jump backwards to make some distance. I hadn't many problems with deflecting her attacks, first one with tail, another with a forehead, that appeared to be slightly painful to the neck and then back to the tail leaf. Though I was surprised by the strength she put in those moves and my knees bent trying to amortise me.

"The one you used your leaf on the forehead, do not try it again. I am teaching you, hitting you with a strength that you will remember, but won't hurt you. Pokemon you may find in the wild won't be holding back, do not sacrifice your head for defence. A leaf on the forehead works more as throat ripper. When you catch your opponent on your tail, then go with another leaf straight in the neck. Do not even charge it before you need it, leave your enemy oblivious to your possibilities," said Tera, shaking her head, putting down her own leaf on the forehead. "In a fair fight, the strongest one wins, and you have to win no matter of who is stronger. Those who are victorious can make history, nobody will care that you won with a trick shot. Victory or death, that all that matters in such of fights."

"You seemed much calmer during the first meeting," I noticed, listening to the lesson she was giving me.

"I usually have to teach how to be useful in the pack. Rarely are there students that fit the Path of Thorns. Also..." she started, but paused, her face turned sad.

"Also?" I repeated.

"The corruption spread around the pack, it doesn't miss anyone. I feel it in my roots, it's coming for me too. You will be my last creation. The finish of all my teaching because," Tera paused for another moment. "When corruption takes me, you will have to be stronger than me. So I won't become a problem for you. Focus on training now, watch me, I will go from left. Try to counter!"

As she told, she did. Jumping on my left she spun aiming with her tail for my legs. I jumped over her leaf and used my own to swing at her chest. She blocked it with a quick wag of her tail that was set to such angle that my own flew with force of momentum above her head. To my surprise, Tera rocketed herself with her back legs forward, headbutting me sending me flat on my back.

"Expect the unexpected," she said as I slowly stood up. "Even if your opponent fights using one weapon, the second one can appear at any moment. You don't know all pokemon, you will never know what they are capable of. You will never know if they are creatures that will give up to the curse and at any second, and they will make use of it. You will never be able to foresee every possibility, but you have to be prepared to act fast enough to save yourself and give yourself a chance to respond."

She repeated her previous attack and when I made a counter she immediately attacked with her head once again. This time I didn't stand to wait until she hit me, I stood on my back legs and with a force pushed my front paws down slamming Teras charging head into the ground.

I yelled as female leafeon body twisted and disintegrated into many small flying leaves that spread all over the clearing.

"Oh, do not worry about it," Tera's voice called from behind me, and when I turned, I saw her there standing being all fine. "You can't do me much harm here. Well, unless you learn how the afterlife plant works. Anyway, do not fear to give me deadly hits and head-crushing blows. I will be all fine, I just need a moment to breathe. Uh, doing this always makes me vomit. It's like jumping from death to life in a single second but never dying at all, yet the sudden change of being as something to be as nothing and the back as something requires a second. But it's good that you got an idea. We won't be able to fully train you to be a perfect duelist of leafy blades, you will have to train on your own. Damn my head hurts. Okay see you... uh, not the next night, have some peaceful sleep too. Two days? Yeah, I think I will visit you in the next two days. Don't die till then." the female leafeon smiled and grassy clearing disappeared from my view turning into the darkness, darkness that became a peaceful and very good dream.

With the first rays of the sun shining on the horizon, we continued our walk. Going to the northern oblast seemed like chasing winter, if we kept a good tempo, we could find small cheaps of snow under branches full of green leaves, while other places looked completely as if they forget what the season of the snow is blooming gratefully. We kept walking on the edge of the spring and winter able to enjoy both, refreshing bellows of cold wind and the warm rays of the rising sun. Enjoyable, but also tricky, it was a way to easily destroy all my leaves in just a single moment. While I spread them to catch more light I was making them vulnerable to cold that could easily wound the smaller veins in my leaves. That was a quite painful experience, after all, leaves weren't protected by anything such simples like fur or even skin. They could be hardened by me changing them into the green glowing blades, but it wasn't what I wanted to spend my strength on now. That is why I had to just watch, resisting the willingness of spreading my leaves wide and enjoying the power of the sun, but to keep them tight so my sun platform could stay safe and still absorb some of the sun. Though honestly, I would prefer to eat some meat instead. Sun was good if I had nothing more to do then just to lay on the clearing absorbing the sun for the whole day. If I had to walk around, creep down, watch my surroundings and generally be active, the sun could work as a nice addition, but not as the main source of power. Though I still needed that, leaves could stand quite long without photosynthesis, but holding it while having access to light was like holding a piss. For few first second no problem, later hard, later painful and in the end, you had to let it goes anyway.

By the way, the funny concept of myself I created in my head. In theory, I was just an eevee overgrown by plants that were giving me some extra height and features. Such an idea somehow amused me and seemed to be interesting to think about, especially now since there are not many other things to do. I thought that Cera also found it amusing as her facial expression showed a slight smile, but she didn't say anything leaving me oblivious if she read my mind or was she laughing at the different thoughts. Maybe someone in our group had a funnier idea, after all, Cera could read though of everyone around, again except Serge. Or maybe she had a psychical conversation with someone? After all, I wasn't the only eon she could use this technique, again except Serge, dark types always had powerful immunity to psychic types. Off course it wasn't saving them in all situations, being dark type could save you from, for example, flying rock accelerated to dangerous speed by some espeon that really meant to leave you a bruise. Though it was happening rarely, such bruise could hurt for a day, maybe a week, explosion of the umbreon's dark sphere could sent espeon for long and hard mind therapy. It would be like me exchanging the cut off leaves with burned... well, most of me and leave wounds for the rest of the life.

Another thing I found funny was that before eeveelution, most of the eevees could create a dark sphere that later was reserved only for umbreons. After evolution, the sphere, besides being created in the same way as before evolution, kept becoming something else. Fireball, water ball, ball of any different colour depending on the type. It was still exploding after throwing it at something, but only dark umbreon's sphere was strong enough to be worth the effort. Generally, a lot of abilities seemed to be quite similar to each other, some were just stronger or weaker. Vaporeons split water, flareons fire, glaceons ice, I was empowering my leaves with energy, Serge was empowering his claws or fangs with dark energy. We were all similar yet different by element we used.

 _Was dark type an element?_

Besides long moment wondering about this though, I decided that simply and obviously I don't know.

The tension was way lower than the day before, we still tried to walk silently but everyone relaxed a bit. Also, it wasn't possible to stay as silent as everyone's stomachs, expect mine this time, kept asking to be filled but the forest stayed empty. Umbreon tried multiple times to search for tracks of something to catch at the same time not going far from the group, unsuccessful.


	29. Ch29 'Hearth of Ice'

Our hunger grew, but there was no food on our path. For now, we ate some grass and edible weeds to calm down the miserable sounds of our stomachs, yet not for all was it a good move. Liss got ill and already returned all she ate, also because of sudden diarrhoea she had to walk at the end of our group, yet Serge kept her company, not that he was ill too. Thought everyone felt that grass wasn't the best meal eeveelution should eat. The sun was miserable so even my ability absorb couldn't help me this day. At least, we had enough water to drink, puddles and mud were almost everywhere.

Cera and Rea seemed to feel best of all of us in these conditions. As I could guess, Cera returned to use her psychic to support her, she was probably still feeling hungry, but with her abilities, she may ignore calling for food way better than the rest of us, except flareon. Rea looked as if she wouldn't even notice a lack of food. Maybe the curse took away her stomach or filled it for eternity because I didn't notice any sights of her being hungry. Yet I remember how happy she was seeing meat before and I rather doubt she would carelessly pass next potential meal.

Destiny left us for now and wasn't giving me any new directions where we should go. Maybe he was looking for something to eat too? Or just had not anything to tell us. I believed he wasn't visiting us because we kept a good direction.

 _He? Rather, it._

Though I didn't really want to keep calling Destiny it, his sex was hard to determine.

 _Again, 'his'._

At some point, it was quite obvious to say what gender is Destiny. The appearance was just a matter of choice, usually, it was me, deprived of all colours, completely white. But Destiny didn't have any problem looking like someone else, like Cera or Sonya.

 _Could he take Metro's appearance? Or looks like a tree? Why did he never copy colours, staying white?_

I drifted away from hunger and the boring road into my thoughts about these meaningless wonders, after all, he was created from the curse. It could mean there is not much sense in anything about his look or purpose.

* * *

Thick dry snow, powdery and cold in touch, it seemed to be more like cold sand than snow. It was dry, too cold to make snow melt into the ball. Just tiny grain, sand but snow. Snow like that couldn't bring any fun, it was unplayable. The wind kept easily carrying it through the black sky, like sharp rocks that reminded me of the bristles of some wind kept cared it easy running through black pending into the sky sharp rocks that reminded me about bristled with spikes back of some pokemon.

It was a dangerous area, it was easy to get hurt here, to get lost, to fall into a hole without escape. For most pokemon, the Northern Oblast was the edge of the world. Anywhere further was considered a complete wasteland, the desert of black sharp rocks, faults and permafrost. There were no wild pokemon that could live here, but it wasn't anything new in this cursed land.

Here, under the rocks, I could hide from the world and nobody could bother me, even for the curse it was too far. The wind outside was howling loudly, trying to move the stone with all its might, but the rock stayed on its place unimpressed. Yet the warm kept escaping and I could feel how the cold slowly climbs up on my paws and bites my back. I breathed and the clouds of steam came out of my muzzle.

 _The heater batteries had to expire again._

I stretched, and the scythe blade clawed the ground, releasing small sparkles. I stood up.

The heater, an old machine, small enough to fit into a tent, kept my tight cave warm, making it the only place one step over the world's edge where anyone could survive the night.

 _If there were any food here, maybe some ice-types would live here?_

I walked to the cubic shape of the heater and created a small shadow ball I carefully pushed into a special hole in the heater case. The cracks sounded from the machine's interior as it came back to life, lighting up the cave. In the new orange glow, I could spot the pokemon on my left. Its head was decorated in a curved scythe blade in deep blue colour that, in weak light, looked dark. Eyes shone, reflecting the glow that also illuminated its fur giving it some colours. Looking at it now I would never guess that dark and grey isn't the natural colour of this pokemon, that its fur could be groomed in any order.

"Hello Sonya, you look like a piece of shit," I greeted her, walking closer and raising a paw, just to touch the paw of my own reflection in the mirror. "How are you doing?"

I asked and turned away, going back to the heater to lie down next to it, however, despite the comfy warmth coming down on my back, I didn't succeed in any of my attempts to get back to sleep.

Was it the wind? The crackling of the heater creating heat from dark type energy? The mattress that lost its old softness from the passing years?

I tossed to the other side, hoping it would help, and closed my eyes again. I waited long, yet still dreams didn't come. I got up and kicked my bed with a growl.

"Fine," I mumbled to myself, and walked toward the exit of the cave. Pushing past through the tight rock formation, I felt how with every step the temperature was lowering, going below zero and further. I passed a slightly bigger room with a large pile of cans, boxes and plastic bags, supplies gathered by years. Wild pokemon didn't know how to open a can, or that inside some plastic box can be food. A year or two after the city was destroyed a lot of these were lying around. Today it was hard to find any of these there in the wild, especially those that still can be consumed. However, here is my natural freezer I had more than enough to spend a few or more years. Only if I would want to spend here for the rest of my life.

I reached the end of the cave and walked outside, into the night and howling wind. The entrance to the cave is located at the side of the steep cliff, covered in a thick layer of ice and only a single and narrow snow-trodden path on the mountainside was leading there, now disappearing in the caring snow, gale. I stood at the edge of the cliff, enjoying the strong gust of wind blowing from below, trying to lift me up, and if I had wings right now, it would.

When the wind weakened, I used this occasion, turned around, and sticking out my bum off the edge of the cliff, I pissed. Then quickly returned to the warm cave, grabbing a bag in my teeth with some meat from my supplies.

I placed the bag on the heater, letting it warm up and laying back on the bed as I waited for the food to be ready.

I kept scratching the rocky ground with my claw as the water was hissing, draining on metal chassis of the machine. It couldn't replace a real oven or even a microwave, but still, it was better than biting ice. Devices using the dark type energy had one specific problem, all of them were built with the idea that only humans will use them and almost all of them had a touch screen. Such touch screens become a huge problem when instead of five, soft, precise fingers, I had long sharp claws and using my nose I usually clicked three or more buttons at the same time. Even manual buttons couldn't endure me for long if they were made of some weak plastic, touch screen, after a moment of using was all clawed and I couldn't see anything on it anymore, considering it somehow reacted on me touching it.

Dozens of electronics ended down at the bottom of the cliff when they broke. Heaters survived, as they were almost completely made of metal, with just two switches, they seemed impossible to break.

When I couldn't hear boiling water anymore, I carefully took a slightly burned plastic bag and placed it on the ground, swiftly opened it with a quick slash of my blade revealing two breast fillets of some pokemon.

I ate them, trying not to focus on their taste, they still were better than the meat on hunted wild pokemon, and I could eat them without fear of getting some ugly parasite or illness. Yet, they were only warm, like prey they would be these few hours old already, carcass. The eating carcass wasn't what absols liked, but here, beyond the edge of the world, it didn't really matter. The second option was starvation, and I wasn't going to starve having a pile of food under my nose.

I threw what was left from the plastic bag next to the exit of the cave so I won't forget to take it out next time I go outside. I returned to lay on the matters to peacefully digest my night snack, I closed my eyes as I didn't mind if I would fall asleep.

Obviously, I couldn't sleep all the time and so I couldn't now. I had a nervous tickling in my paws because of my laziness, even if the outside looked as if it was the middle of winter, it had to be the beginning or close to the beginning of the spring. This fall, I promised myself way more seriously than any fall before that I won't leave this place this year. I could just live here, considering this territory as mine, free from any competition, queen of the bare rocks and heaps of snow. It was easy to take land no one wanted.

As in this world, only some creatures had a purpose, while I was just a grey soul, blindly wandering in this ocean of life. Yet, I couldn't stay in place and kept returning to blindly wondering as it could bring hope for a better life, while staying here clearly meant nothing will change. Staying here, I was frozen, just like the whole land, that's why it was beyond the edge of the world. For most, it just didn't exist, direction without end, just nothing. Even the cursed grounds directly next to the ruined city seemed to give a better chance for a living than this place.

 _However, I wasted my chance. Funny how a journey with one random leafeon seemed to give me a purpose._

In the beginning, I just wanted to trick him into the grass type clearing to get this shiny, precious to some fire type group orb. I never even thought that I will ever complete my promise of bringing him back to his pack. Heck, I don't even like eeveelutions, weak bastards that think they could be the second humanity by building their funny society just by multiplying. They have to fuck all day and all night to keep their number in check and hunt off their ground to feed everyone. All of this just because of the mountains that protected them while the world seemed to end and curse spread for the first time. They were hidden, behind the mountains, behind bulwark that suppresses the wave of the destruction that anomalies brought.

Instead of me tricking him, fate tricked me, as after getting rid of the fire types group I thought:

 _Why not, I don't have anything better to do anyway. Why won't it be my direction, for now?_

This is how I was given a new purpose, a meaningless grass type started to be not so meaningless. Befriended me, though back then I felt angry at it, that I became tamed as some wild beast, Agaar. Guess at some part I was right; I was kind of tamed, after years of lonely wandering and unsuccessful attempts to join absol groups I had to be tamed a bit to communicate with someone. But in the end, it doesn't even matter, I got scared of all these purposes. It tried to force me back into the past, to change my life completely and throw me out onto an unknown path.

Attacking Zar was stupid, I didn't know what I wanted to achieve doing this. I just freaked out, Zar saw my master in the glass melted on the ground. Reaching a hand for me. It looked like invitation. Would it mean that by all this time I am dead but still walking? That my destiny was to die with the city and everyone who was there, but I somehow missed it? Maybe it was death, all the things I saw and done after surviving that one day. I did in the world on the other side of the mirror. It felt weird then as if all my thoughts would wash away and the only thing I could depend on was instinct. All of this, just because I was scared, scared of things that frighten me before my skin became thick and hearth so cold.

Now it was all ruined, I felt loss, sadness. I lost this dreamland of indifference I was searching for now in my dreams. I craved for happiness that the curse took away from me.

All these emotions swelled inside of me until I no longer could just stay in place, I stood up to pace around the heater, but even that didn't help. I ran through the tight entrance to the exit and to the edge of the cliff.

"AAA! I hate you, world!" I screamed into the howling wind, took a deep breath and screamed just as loud as was my throat's limit. I panted, making small clouds of steam when I had no more air in my lungs.

"Fuck, I forgot to take out the trash," I said to myself, looking down the cliff. I turned around back to the entrance, but instead of walking in, I pushed the ground away and threw myself into the abyss of the cliff. I heard whizzing air in my ears and the horrible feeling of falling that made my heart pound hard. I was falling for another two seconds when I felt my body expanding and new limbs being available.

I spread my wings wide, stabilising my flight and using momentum to fly up. My wings weren't strong enough to make me fly like a true avian, but were enough for shorter distances and a few stronger flaps could carry me on the decent height. I flew alongside the mountain wall, slightly lowering my flight. Visibility through the snowy wind was limited, but the wind itself wasn't a problem, blowing mainly from the bottom. When the ground was visible, I carefully landed and took a moment to fold my wings on my back, finding this one comfortable position when I could forget about them. I walked in the direction I thought the wall of the mountain was and quickly found it. Next, I found a widening crack in the ice. After a short walk, the crack widened to the size I could enter without crawling.

Inside, it was so dark that only a dark type could see anything, black stone and night outside could burrow the whole interior in a single blur, impenetrable for the eye used to the daylight. Taking advantage of my night vision, I walked deeper into the entrails of the silent mountain, inside was a gulf I jumped over and entered a slightly bigger chamber, of which the ceiling was cut with many white lines on which grown small brown plants with tiny dry leaves.

In the corner of the chamber, under a rock, I found a bunch of small plastic bags. Most of them were leftovers of chewy or gummy candies I ate in the past. I loved gummies, I loved them to the point I hadn't any more left. I took one package in my teeth and put rock back on the rest. Then I walked to the wall and, using my now overgrown scythe, cut the brown plants off the wall and carefully garner them into the package, there was still a lot left on the ground, but I did my best with claws. It was okay, I didn't need much. Carrying the pack in my muzzle, I left the chamber and returned outside.

Walking some distance off the mountain wall, I ran and jumped on the icy flank, unfolding my wings and giving myself a push, hooking my clawed paws into the ice and powerfully flapping my wings to keep going up on almost a completely vertical surface, until I was above the cliff I jumped from. Then I pushed myself off the mountain and spreading wings. I flew in a circle using the wind to keep the height, and then landed, slipping on the ice until I stopped myself with digging my claws. I dropped the package from my mouth and swiftly skewered it on my horn.

I flapped with my wings to clean them from the snow and entered the cave, back to my winter home, in this enlarged form I had some problems to squish between the rocks in the entrance; I had to crouch down.

"My butt has become too big for this passage," I commented under my breath, getting through another tight part of the rock formation. I passed the pile of supplies and entered my warm sleeping room. I immediately threw everything in my package into the heater, in the same opening I put a shadow ball earlier.

After few seconds, the heater started to exhale dense white smoke. I lied down on my place and deeply inhaled the smoke, feeling how it goes down my lungs, firing a small flame inside me, clouding the mind and calming my temper, anger and worries.

I flattened myself on the mattress and spread my wings wide, covering most of the space in the room. White feathers rustled softly against the floor and my spine cracked while I stretched, finding the most comfortable position before the drug cut me off completely for another few days.

The bed seemed now way more comfortable than before, improving the calming experiences, for the last time I opened and closed my eyes. It was a mistake. Even when laying completely flat, I started to feel my head spin and the comfortable feeling got replaced by sudden stomach spasms as I threw up some barely digested meat. The smell in the room immediately became much worse, and the vomiting brought me some of the awareness. I tried to stand up, but I fell to the side, noticing that my wings had disappeared.

"C'mon, I could use this extra strength now," I mumbled, getting on my paws. Trying to gain back my footing while fighting my head that kept spinning round and round, I moved to the exit to breathe some clean air. Besides my best attempts, I still steeped in the pile of my stomach belongings and swore loudly, thought unclear. I didn't even get through the exit, painfully hitting the wall with my forehead in a way that even my horn didn't help me. I wanted to rub off the pain, and so I forgot that my paw wasn't clean, getting dirty also my face.

"Sonya you stupid fuck!" I shouted, shaking my head and almost toppled again.

Snow, I needed snow to clean myself!

Taking a second attempt to leave the cave, now much slower and wobbly, I walked through the exit. As if half-blind, I moved through the tunnel and burrowed myself in the snow just as I was outside.

Rolling in the snow was refreshing and killed the unkind smell of vomit. I took the white powder in my mouth to wash the terrible taste away and spit a few times to be sure there was nothing left of my former meal.

I stayed in the snow, lying on my back I could watch how the sun slowly shined, shyly appears above mountains peaks. Gleaming light reflected from the frozen rock walls and created long shadows of distant peaks. The rays were surprisingly warm, was it a much later part of the year then I thought?

I rolled back on my paws and stood up. From my cave, I could still smell the disgusting odour and I could only imagine how terrible it has to smell inside. I looked on the narrow trodden path that led along the side of the mountain, curling and twisting in passes and clefts slightly going down to the lands with forests, clearings, rivers and living there pokemon. Packs, groups, families or lonely ones. The land that always lured me with the hope I can turn back time and return to the days when nobody even thought about survival.

"Well," I wondered aloud. "Maybe it's not about looking for hope, but making some." I decided it was time to leave for another wandering, the last one. I turned around and shot a quick shadow ball above the entrance to my cave. The ice and snow fell down in a cloud of dust burrowing everything that was left inside.

Yeah, I could always dig it the entry, I didn't make whole cave collapse, but it wasn't what I planned to do.

"No turning back this time," I said to myself, and followed the narrow path with a trot. Not because I was in a hurry, but staying in the move could help to fight off the cold which the sun rays weren't enough to counter. It was also a good form of training to get back into shape after all this sleeping, the land I was heading to was also quite dangerous. Even without all the cursed abominations, being weak resulted with being easy food, or worse. You never knew if someone you meet wasn't some kind of freak. Life is full of surprises.

The advantage of being outside of the world was that surprises were limited to the very minimum. Years were passing and the path I kept using never changed, sometimes the weather brought some new snow or something was covered in ice. No difference for such adjusted to the snowy mountain environment, weather foreseeing pokemon like me. Thought besides obvious adjustments like wide paws to not sink in the snow or thick fur to keep warm in the cold, high mountains and snowy peaks never were my favourite. I prefer flatter land, where I could move in every direction with ease, not bothered to find a path from one peak to another, sometimes take a risk and jump from a high ledge or to climb on one. Where whenever I see prey, I have to catch it because there won't be a second one for another month or more. Mountains had its beauty, but living in the forest was always easier. When hunger strikes, you can pick up the trail almost anywhere and even eat in the same day. In more empty regions hunting can take a day or two, but it was still less than a month.

The forests were also changing, depending on the time of the year, pokemon that live there. In the high mountains, everything was still, the only thing that kept changing was the amount of ice. Maybe if someone could live a hundred years, could notice some differences, but to really see a change I would have to live millennia. Even if my lifespan wasn't as miserable as Zar's and other eeveelutions, it wasn't enough to see a mountain change. Maybe if I would be born ninetales, maybe then I would be able to see it live by the thousands of years.

 _Though was it really so cool to live so long?_

That's a huge amount of time, even a few years are enough for the world to change into something I could never foresee it to become, but a thousand years? It's enough to see deserts turning to forests, rivers and oceans become dry, to see the rise of civilisation, or its end. To think, I would learn at the beginning of my life I could be completely ancient at its end, museums would have relics younger than I and I may remember the tastes of species long forgotten. How does memory work after such a long time? There have to be so many things to remember! How would ninetales even behave toward each other? Is a two hundred years old ninetales considered as a teenager? A thirty years old vulpix is newborn and while one turns nine hundred, it is considered at the edge of its life, but still can easily live for another two hundred years?

These numbers really seemed weird, but after all, why not? Maybe that was how Zar was considering me, thirty years could be more than he will ever reach while I, even being mature, wasn't sure if I am really mature. Though being nine, ten or eleven, whatever Zar told me he was, couldn't be enough to understand the world yet.

 _What if ninetales thinks like that about the rest? Four hundred years? Pfff, you just started your life! Oh, it's not absol I knew but the fifth generation after her? You die so fast._

It was a bit dark, though by living such a long time they had to train some kind of resistance to other pokemon's deaths, like, even if not in the wild but some people had ninetales and they had to know each other and have some friends. Knowing everyone you have met and will meet for another ten centuries will probably die before you, you have to build some resistance to the loss. Maybe ninetales that already has these five hundred years, could see the desert turning in the ocean and a new civilisation appear, cares about others life as much as we care about falling leaves? They fall every year, thousands of them and always are replaced by thousands of new ones.

Trying to get away from dark thoughts, I focused on the road. At a peaceful pace, I should arrive at the Northern Oblast this night, then I shall eat something. Vomiting today left my stomach empty and I could guess that I will start to feel the hunger in an hour or two. Most of the Oblast was neutral territory, in theory, there were few superiors there. Apex predators could say it was their territory, but it also wasn't such restrictive as, for example, Eight Peaks Valley where eeveelutions and eeveelutions only could appear. As long as I don't appear as easy prey or a rival for territory, I shouldn't have any problems. I kept passing there almost every year and never had any problems with beartic that sometimes would just give me a gloomy look from afar, but in most cases, if we ever met, he won't even give me any of his attention as long I won't get in his way. I liked that, it was the closest way to get to my hideout outside the world and the possibility to just walk without fur standing up at the slight whish behind the back was was comfortable.

It wasn't that we liked each other, his territory was much better than what I had Beyond the Edge, but such confrontation were very risky for me. Not impossible to win, but the chance to get very serious wounds was too high. After taking territory, you have to keep it and there are a lot of weaker but aspiring hunters that very willingly would visit before I could heal my wounds. Beartic probably wasn't afraid I could kill him, I was guessing I was beyond the level he could consider as safe to hunt, also everyone kept saying that absols bring disasters. It seemed to be a much better idea to let one pass so it could bring disaster elsewhere than checking how true this stereotype is.

 _Ironic that so far I brought disaster only to myself._

Further very peaceful land where snowy mountains weren't the main part of the landscape, it was more of a wide rocky glades with rare grass where the group of huge auroruses lived. Unlike avalugs that could be found going further on the east ( _while I had to go more to the south_ ), they were intelligent and could be asked for various things, however, they didn't like to talk with me too much, limiting our relations to exchange of information. Information about beartic look and shape in exchange for the most interesting fact that happened lately in the area from there to even the ruins of my beloved city. I knew that aurorueses lived the clearest hatred toward beartic, who developed a taste for fresh amaura's meat. I remember how in the past they tried to persuade me to fight their enemy, lucky me I wasn't fearless in my younger years. I wasn't very scared, but seeing how gigantic aurorus can be I wasn't sure if I could stand any chance to something they fear.

The land these blue pokemon were spreading wide into the south and had it edge where in the past was a highway. With this highway, I could reach the city ruins or go in the opposite way, the ocean, in both ways it was almost a week of walking. However, I couldn't use highway freely. I had some enemies in the world and there was one of them, the most obstinate and irritating. The one who will go far off its territory if she catches my trail. There was where the mightyenas pack lived. It was very unfortunate that I messed with them. Mightyenas weren't natural to this region, just like me they were brought here to fuel the city with their dark type energy as fluffy pets, it worked. Humans really liked mightyenas, their attachment and faithful to their owners and loved to be petted and scratched, humans always loved quadruped fluffy pokemon which used to show its affection with a wagging tail. When the doom came and people died or left in evacuations, there was a lot of leftovers that suddenly had to become masters of their own life. Conflicts were popular, wilderness had to judge us all, and so it did. We split into groups and it appeared that mightyenas cooperate way better than the pack of prideful absols that has problems with hierarchy and doing anything together in a group bigger than two. Also, mightyenas become friends with a wild pack of eeveelutions. I was a bit unlucky in confrontations between our groups truly believing in absols' pride. Stupid young me had to defend such meaningless pride with a scythe and lose it completely. I was banished from absols for bringing the anger of second quadruped dark types and gained hatred that made us eternal enemies. There was no chance to change it anymore, as long as Venit and few her mightyenas have scars I made, they won't forget.


	30. CH30 'Living Dream'

Ch 30 'Living Dream'

Personality, some say it's defined by the blood of our parents running in us. That when one reaches the right age, his likes and dislikes will be the same as his ancestors. Yet I think that the things I learned staying up late in the night with my thoughts truly made me who I am. When you lose the world you used to live in, you have a lot of dark thoughts, you don't know what to do, how to live, ideals had to lose all sense until there is only the grey reality you have to face. Today I think the best I could have done then was to turn to someone who could bring some joy, so I wouldn't fall into darkness too much. These days I couldn't find anyone like that because everyone who survived the rise of the curse had to go through hell experiencing tragedy after tragedy. Living amongst sadness, pushing you into depression and then getting the mind is clouded and you float on your feelings, negative feelings that burn you from the inside making you impulsive and aggressive, easy to manipulate, until there is nothing left and then comes the realisation that never really matters, but it's too late already. You can't rise to smile at sunrise telling yourself that everything is alright, knowing what you lost and how wrong was what followed.

As the city had fallen, the dust of destruction fell and the first rays of the sun reflected on the still burning ruins of concentrate, steel and glass I managed to crawl from debris that was once the block where I lived. The building had collapsed during the storm of anomalies while I was inside, I didn't know how I survived. I had broken ribs, leg, and tail, was heavily bleeding. Moving was painful, my lungs felt like they were burned with fire as I inhaled the dust, I couldn't scream or shout and I thought it was my last moments alive. I had crawled through the ruined land trying to survive.

I couldn't remember what I thought or had seen, I would die there without any doubts. However, the curse had different plans for me, coming with dust into my mouth, nose, and wounds it changed me, giving me new, hard bones, strong muscles and wings. The form that comes to help me in hard times, making me endure the worse and keep going, that keeps me alive. I didn't meet anyone this day. Later I learned that under the ruins I spent much more than a single night.

"Ah, how crazy my path had gone to lead me to where I am right now," I mumbled to myself, walking at the edge of the precipice so deep, its bottom was hidden in the darkness. I didn't mean fate bringing me at the edge of this random hole, but the current state of life.

Looking to the past it all seemed quite clear, but those times I was completely confused and lost. I hadn't even notice my form change, wings helping me to keep my balance and making my jumps longer. Not only I was too young to understand it, but also stressed and in shock. I had looked at what was left of the city, but I believe that I truly was seeing it. As if my mind hadn't been able to understand what I had before my eyes, it all felt like a dream I couldn't wake from. I hadn't felt sad, yet, to be honest, I hadn't felt anything, I had been looking at the unfamiliar environment of destruction with a glassy eye, blankly noticing lost limbs laying in the puddles of blood, stinky mush of flesh and lifeless eyes looking back at me as blankly as I was looking at them. All emotions had to cumulate and come back later. I hadn't been able to do anything this day but to stiffly walk slowly leaving the city, I forgot about all natural needs like eating or drinking, sleep or piss. I was like an undead, walking unnaturally in one direction.

I hadn't met anyone this day or the following night, in the morning with the rising sun, my winged form left me making me feel all the pain and exhaustion once again. For now, it was only physical pain. I was without a wound and I had all my bones back, healed as they should be. I had collapsed and slept.

 _I am asleep quite a lot in my life._

I noticed. As I was slowly nearing the cross to the edge of the world, I saw in the distance tall, white mountains with peaks hidden in clouds. It was a territory of beartic. I liked to call apex predators 'rulers' of some ground, even if they weren't ruling anything. It's a human thing I adapted. Such predators were more or less known on their territory, but they weren't the only inhabitant of 'their' grounds. They had to have something they could hunt on and various kinds of pests. For the snowy mountains, it was usually sneasels and jynxs. Generally, things you rarely eat them, but they exist and can be somewhat annoying than a real problem. It's a bit worse when such pests grow into a more serious problem, for example, when there are snovers on your group. It's nothing, you may hunt it for meat or ignore it, but someday there might be an abomasnow to deal with or anything different that could become challenging to defeat. The more you wait, the stronger a rival you can have, and so there appears the stress of time, and no one wants to be kicked off their own home. That's why I thought that calling apex predators 'rulers' was fitting for them, even if they didn't have anyone to rule. They had to control their grounds and each had as much ground it could control. It could be also the reason I never decided to take some territory for myself, maybe a beartic was a bit too much, but I was sure that with the help of my bewinged form I could become an apex in some region. Yet, I would want the land only in a more 'human' manner, to live in a big comfortable den, unbothered, which was the complete opposite of being a 'ruler' in the wilderness.

Anyway, returning to my thoughts about how I became the Walking Disaster, as some more probing in my background was calling me. I woke up very late, before sunset, and I hadn't had any idea what to do next. I would naturally go back home, but this time I didn't have one, so I just sat there the hole in my heart appeared. It had been only the beginning, the hole was small but had kept growing for many months and years.

I wasn't sure if the hole ever closed, maybe I just grew to ignore it, waiting for something to trigger it again.

I had become nervous. These days I was like a year or two old, too young to know how to deal with negative and powerful emotions differently than reacting with aggression, recklessly empowering my dark typing, dangerously pushing myself toward something defined as a feral dark type, or what was more popular in the wild, mad darkling. Negative emotions are a power for dark types, being strong and powerful feels amazing. All this energy leaving your mind, not bothering you anymore, running in your veins, making everything better. Outside it could look terrible, but inside it was a very relaxing state.

It was a bit like with alcohol amongst humans, you could make it great for you, but it also could end terribly. I thought I shouldn't be scared of negative emotions, but aware of where they could lead me if I don't stop at the right moment. It wasn't so dangerous in the past, but the curse based on the dark type energy, dark type in such a bad condition produces a lot of such energy with very little control over it. The curse was like a disease or parasite like with the vulnerable darkling, it was always spreading whenever it could.

Types which didn't have anything in common with dark types were safe, psychic and ghost types being weak against dark types usually surrendered to the curse much faster than the others. Psychic also had their complicated telepathy that was just another way for the corruption to jump onto another victim.

Though, as a dark type, I'm supposed to be resistant against my dark energy. Guess I will never truly learn how the corruption exactly worked, maybe it was even better than gaining some more attention and some unfortunate day be visited by the anomaly.

The anomalies also changed a bit since the days of my home's destruction. I hadn't seen any blinding bright spheres like in the metro under the city centre, there were more corrupted pokemon now.

Not everyone tried to avoid becoming corrupted, some wanted it. Some were willing to sacrifice themselves for some extra strength and abilities that the corruption could grant. By wishing for the curse they could achieve much more visible and unnatural changes, even a new type, depends on what they wished for and what purpose the curse had for them. Meeting any of these abominations never ended well, not many kept any of their intelligence after the change and even fewer were willing to use it for peaceful purposes.

At least, they weren't easy to find and there were groups of pokemon willing to meet them, or rather, searching for them. Even if wild pokemon didn't invent money, there were many other things they could exchange and some organised packs were usually willing to make some deal to hunt down some abomination in their area. Food was quite common and always needed goods, sometimes there was a chance to get a working flashlight, dryer or similar simple device left by humans. In rare cases, the reward could be even greater, like the part of the territory or rare stone. Pokemon weren't interested in minerals like humans, but some stones could help with evolution, there was also this weird... stone, pearl or sphere? Whatever it was, the Light of Midnight Zar had helped me to steal. It had to be something special too, but it didn't seem to be human-made, I would recognise it if it would be.

Today's special treasures were quite common stuff, on my first days as a survivor, I didn't care about them at all, yet I had had to find some food. I had been searching for some shop, as shops always were full of food. I had walked so far away from the city centre I didn't have any chance to find any supermarkets, but my hungrily improved sense of smell had to lead me to something that had used to be a meat store, before it was a pile of bricks I had to dig through to find something to eat. My claws weren't used to doing work these days, Aria used to keep them trimmed so that I wouldn't immediately cut everything I touch, like the couch or carpet. The horn also couldn't be of help. An absol's horn grew since birth, gaining its general shape in the first year, but it needed to grow a few years more to achieve a thickness that would make it hard enough to be used safely without breaking. These days, my horn was a thin curve, not a scythe.

The digging had taken me a great effort, but I finally found a line of sausages and something that looked like breast fillet. This day I discovered that cold, unprepared meat doesn't taste so good. My appetite didn't mind it and I ate everything I could find and even if it once was a shop with meat, I hadn't found that much. Many times, I had been returning to the places of ruined markets, looming for food that wasn't rotten, digging in the ruins hoping that somewhere there was still a working, dark-type powered fridge with many tasty things inside. Sometimes I was lucky, other times I had to face long times of hunger. But it was when I was on my own, in the first days after living in the wild, I had to join the survivors.

There weren't many of us, mostly mightyena with younger poochyenas, and sneazel that from the beginning seemed to be here just for food, but all the time was a true wild pokemon, an umbreon or two that were very a popular choice for humans' pet, but their chances to survive were much smaller than stronger dark types. I remember one had a broken limb and didn't manage to survive, there was also a third eeveelution, unusual pokemon for the city, a fire type, flareon. A very strong one, he had to be trained for police service or something.

I don't remember much about him, he left quite quickly, even before we started to fight for food.

There were also four absol, each of us was a stranger to each other, but thanks to the hidden curse inside of me I became the strangest of them.

Food had split us, into smaller and smaller groups, until every species was on its own, able kill another for a bottle of water, a part of the ruins, or a cold and dirty sausage. Each of us had to slowly change from fluffy couch pet to wild pokemon, but we didn't know the rules of wilderness and so we could easily overdo changing fighting for survival into pure cruelty.

I pushed the thought from the past away as I entered beartic territory. Even if I wasn't expecting any fight, I didn't want to be surprised or give any possible advantage to the apex predator of this ground just by being lost in focus.

The main point of this ice-type territory was a peaked mountain, much higher than the others in the area. That was where the den had to be. This beartic lived a lonely life and hadn't a female or offspring, it wasn't anything surprising claiming territory at the edge of the world. Nother Oblast, in general, is poorly populated and empty, good for everyone who wants to be away from eeveelutions pack, oozing from the ruined city curse, and possible competition in being dominant.

However, it felt a bit warmer here than beyond the edge, it was still cold, but the snow felt wetter, and much more sticky, no longer having a salt like consistency. It felt nicer to step on, giving a feeling of softness, also making the walk easier as my wide paws weren't sinking in anymore, leaving only a slight mark behind me.

 _Yeah, it was almost a perfect environment and climate for an absol. Just the mountain was too small._

The mountain range with eight peaks that were surrounding the green forest would be perfect for me, a mountain environment that require a few days to pass through, not the pitiful one that was before me that I needed only an hour or two to get around. Living on the Eight Peaks would be a great life, especially on its eastern side, the western range was a bit close to the city that didn't seem to be so safe, after I learned that something lives there and can be dangerous. But the eastern part had to be great, I had only a short glance at it, but I saw these beautiful land with plenty of food and territory to take. I could see it shortly after leaving the city's dusted grounds and before the eeveelution pack noticed they don't have humans as neighbours anymore and claimed it all for their great pack. Competition between packs happen in the wild, but usually, the pack had to have ten, maybe fifteen adults to be considered as a big one, but eons seemed to not care about any number and the mountains were swarmed with glaceons pushing everyone out of, now, their glorious land.

Feeling unable to do anything about it was terrible, I hoped I will never again feel so powerless against changes in my life, but since leaving the mountains, because of the glaceon, I just kept feeling that my life was just kept getting pushed by some invisible waves of fate, and all I could do was to allow them to carry me whenever they wanted. Since then I didn't like eeveelutions, I didn't have some special hatred toward them like some others species or packs that crossed their paths and were just pushed away, I just didn't like them, didn't like their ways and pride they had of being in such a big group. Like, what pride was it of being one of many similar creatures, running around, outnumbering every other species and 'retaking' their territory. That's how I heard few glaceon calling their spreading. It wasn't conquering or invading but retaking. But truth be told, they were quite effective at what they were doing, such an organisation in a big group was something completely unexpected from wild pokemon. Survivors from the city didn't manage to work together, even if we split into smaller groups we still had a problem to make decisions together. I would say they have a really strong leader, but considering how short an eeveelution's life was, I had to outlive at least two leaders and their pack didn't lose any strength. They had to create some sort of system to organise, some order, to keep so spread pack as one. I wouldn't call it civilisation, but a phenomenon of wilderness. Wild pokemon were sometimes uniting, but for a short period, usually for a simple goal of surviving. Situations like these were triggered by typing and fight of domination, something that was happening in the forest where I met Zar, but it wasn't even close to what was required to create a functional pack that could last more generations.

I could only imagine how humans would be freaked out if they would find this out.

Though at the second thought, maybe it would be better if they would never have found this out. Eeveelutions were rare in every region and finding out such a big group of them in a single place would end with massive catching and even if I was domestic, I didn't like the idea of changing wild pokemon into pets. Those who are wild should stay wild while those born amongst humans should stay with them. This way I have seen these two worlds staying happy as wild one in a first and second generation would fit for civilised life. Eating from a bowl, going on walks, sparring or generally obeying any commands and living life in its way.

Being honest, I thought I was quite lucky that I never had to spare with caught wild pokemon as today I know they just don't lose. Losing in the wild is dying, following this rule, caught wild pokemon could make a lot of harm to itself or someone.

I already almost reached the wall of the mountain and started to go around it to pass on the other side. The environment was quite empty, snow, ice, and some rocks. Rather nothing besides the mountain was blocking the view on the horizon. White colour was melting into a single mass of white and someone who wasn't here before for sure wouldn't know that the ground was slightly lowering at some places and the mountain was between two small valleys. There was also the third valley on the opposite side of the mountain created by the river that was appearing here seasonally, in the middle of summer when the some of the snow melted, but it never was warm enough to see bare ground here. The hottest temperature at summer here could reach even 10 degrees, but the layer of the snow that gathered during the winter was just too thick to disappear completely.

My balance shifted momentarily and I almost tripped, as my now longer claws hooked against the harder snow, but saved myself with a flap of wings that just appeared.

"Now?" I wondered, mumbling to myself not understanding this sudden change.

I looked around and sniffed the air, but I didn't discover anything new.

 _Maybe I cough some flu or other illness which to fight off I needed my greater form._

I shrugged, fold my wings on my back so they could rest there peacefully.

The snow beneath me exploded just after one step forward and I found myself flying limply until I hit the ground. I yelped with pain as I felt on my left-wing, however, I jumped back on my paws as quickly as I was able to.

I still could fully move my wing so it wasn't broken, yet the pain remains. I looked at the hole the explosion created and beartic that already managed to get out of the hole he created.

"Have you lost your mind?! Do you want to die?!" I realised my anger at him as my horn darkened from build up energy. Ice-type didn't react at first and kept looking in a completely different way, then he suddenly snapped and unnaturally twisted his head as his neck cracked a few times. I looked straight into two circles of an endless abyss in the place where his eyes should be and my anger disappeared. Beartic opened his jaw showing half-rotten tongue surrounded by rows of fractured teeth and made a sound that was something between squawk and croak that scared me more than mighties beartic roar. The smell itself almost made me to pass out. I was sure that I had faced creature changed by corruption, an abomination.

 _When did he give up to the curse? Or how did the curse reach so far?_

My wonders had to wait for later as the ice type dashed forward, trying to crush me with his weight. I jumped back and pushed the air with my wings to double the distance, avoiding his massive body and longs paws whose claws would reach me if I didn't put my wings into work.

"Trying to feed the parasite, huh? It hurts when you have nothing to give and it starts to consume you?" I teased him, seeing a few more places that had started to rot, exposing flesh and parts of bones.

"Frr-frr, feast on you," squawked beartic, his voice was modulated but without a functional tongue and barely understandable. He did his best trying to roar again, and started charging at me on all fours. I provoked him just for it, when he was close enough to I pretend to dodge his attack again, but this time I flapped my wings, pushing myself forward in mid-air. The force of beartic made my horn go through his flank like through butter and I kept pushing it until I cut through the whole length of his flank. What I didn't expect was that the beartic didn't care about the wound at all, but with doubled fury turned around and attacked me again. Only the luck that I slipped on the ice saved me from being crushed in the jaws of the ice type, but it wasn't all that beartic had for me, as he kept biting, clawing, and smashing forcing me to keep backing away, trying to save my life. It wasn't fighting anymore, but furious cutting. I tried to defend by blindly attacking with my horn, hitting form left to right, from left to right still going backwards. I kept cutting his paw and his maw until the dripping blood from my scythe covered whole my view, but nothing seemed to be enough, this abomination finally getting on my throat and I felt I couldn't keep up with his barrage. I jumped high in the air and tried to fly up to buy myself at least a second of breath, somewhere where he couldn't reach me, but his powerful jaws gripped on my tail. The beartic brought me back down to the ground and smashed me against the ground; a loud crack made it sure now that at least one wing is broken. Not letting go of my tail, the ice type lifted me again trying to smash me against the ground again. As I didn't feel the ground, I was struck with the pain of my broken wings now spreading. I unleashed the pain in scream and furry that focused in my tail, creating a shadow ball inside the beartic's maw that exploded, spraying everything around in red dots of blood. I fell on the ground, again free from his grasp, and with the last of my strength I stood up. The beartic tried to stand up too, but his lower jaw was lying in the puddle of blood next to him, completely ripped off.

I didn't wait for him to understand what happened, I jumped in the air again, culminating my pain, fear, anger, and furry in my horn as it glows in a black flame and lowered it onto the beartic's neck, cutting off his head, but it didn't feel like enough. I shot a shadow ball at the newly created opening in the ice type's body, then another and another, until there was nothing left to shoot in and there was only huge wet blood or red on the snow.

I wanted to walk away, but after just a few steps I fell on the ground. All I managed to do was to take care to not lie on the wings.

Breath, breathing was all that I could do now and it was enough. All that mattered now was that I was alive, and the beartic wasn't. I was happy.


	31. Ch31 'Scythe'

Long were the hours of darkness, it was cold and something smelled bad. I couldn't sleep, but was too weak to be awake, I was in something between reality and dreams, where time seemed not to exist and no information could be remembered. I couldn't keep my eyes open and I feared to keep them closed, it was night, that much I could see. The white snow under the sky of stars shining brightly, undisturbed by any other source of light. I felt I changed multiple times, swinging between bewinged and normal form. I didn't know how many times it happened, all I could say is that it was many and something was telling me it wasn't good. However, I couldn't think about it, remember it. There was a reset, another dark sky full of stars and white snow that almost covered me fully.

Snap.

It seemed like a blink of the eye, yet felt like days of waiting when I opened my eyes again to look at the new dark sky full of stars and snow that started to hide the sky away from my view.

Snap, another restart.

It's cold and dark. I can't move, with open or closed eyes I see the same darkness. A sporadic shiver shook my body, ears are filled with thunderous noise of blood being pumped through my veins with rising effort. Every breath became a great effort of pulling the tons of air mass into my lungs and felt as running a marathon in which I could only grow weaker, until I won't be able to keep going. Another change in my appearance, every sense of staying alive seemed like too much weight for my strength. I would like to see the sky again, I would reach for it. I thought I did, I didn't know, I couldn't feel anything anymore and my eyes were too heavy to open.

Then I felt only warmth.

* * *

Something smelt sweet, not as sweet as berries that ripened in the warm rays of the summer sun. It was delicately sweet, like a perfume that's used when someone wants to smell pretty, but also avoiding making it official or making others in its environment think that today is some special occasion. A sweet, daily perfume that doesn't catch too much attention, but marks its presence. It smelled much better than rotten beartic, that's for sure.

The images of fighting with the corrupted ice type rushed through my head and my eyes shot open just to meet another two eyes looking into mine, each was different, one was red as if a hailstorm of fire was rolling inside of them, the other was white as if said hailstorm had frozen over with ice.

"Ah!" I squealed, jumping on my paws, but a sudden wave of exhaustion made me clumsily fall backwards on my bare back, my vision was covered by dark for a moment.

Lying still I waited for my vision to come back.

"I see you're awake," said a soft, feminine voice before my sight returned, but the resonance of her voice told me we are in a cave or something of the kind. "There is warm food, maybe you want to eat."

There was indeed food that looked as if cooked in an oven, very human-like. A brown, juicy corpse, carefully peeled and prepared for consumption. I wasn't even sure what it was, it looked completely like humans used to prepare their food. The hope built up in me, but quickly fade away when I looked at voice's owner.

It wasn't a human, she wasn't even human alike. It was a quadruped creature with a wildfire of orange fur and two differently coloured eyes, one quite normal for a ninetales, the other was white as frozen in ice, yet alive, moving and working. Though the ninetales was lying right now, I could judge she was taller than me yet less bulky, in case of combat I should go for her legs. It was hard to say what was her age, the fur gleamed and shone beautifully, the skin seemed to be firm and the sight clear and penetrating. Yet, it was a ninetales, it could have fifty or five hundred more years and still looking the same. What she was capable of, what she could do or knew was an absolute secret.

However, I woke up next to her, in a warm cave, and with food. I could guess that we were friends for now, and neither she nor I should react aggressively now.

With a nod, I accepted the offered food and got closer to take a bite.

 _Heck, if it's poisoned._

Again, if I had to have trouble, I wouldn't awake, for a second, ninetales didn't have much in common with poison. I begin to eat, and it was incredibly delicious. The meat was just so fragile, warm, full of taste and juicy, that I didn't even notice when I devoured the whole portion, leaving only white bones. The fire type for a moment was looking at me while I was eating, but later she rested her head on her front paws and pretended to be asleep, only the rhythm of her breathing told me she was still awake.

I licked my mouth, memorising the delicious taste of the meat and how greatly the fire type was able to prepare it with her fire. Then I looked over the place, it wasn't any deep cave. The exit was small, not allowing much heat to escape, but it was just three steps away from me, and four from the ninetales. I also noticed she wasn't bothered with my presence, it annoyed me a little, but also raised my curiosity.

 _Maybe she's lived too long to be surprised by anything someone like me could do?_

I looked at the exit again, there was a strong wind howling in the deep night outside, but the cold air didn't invade our hiding place, and seeing as it was all ice and snow, I decided to not call it a cave any longer, it was possible that the ninetales just dug it.

"You can live if you want," said the fire type softly, probably seeing me looking at the exit. "The night is your realm after all." She continued. "But it isn't the night you know."

I kept looking into the window to the world outside, hidden in darkness and lit by the stars and moon.

"In the shadows, difference waits for you, use the time I gave you to take a breath, because as soon as you leave, you start a marathon of exhaustion," peacefully informed the ninetales, not opening her eyes.

I looked back at her, considering if I should rather leave or stay. However, it seemed to be quite cold outside, and so I decided to stay in the warm a little longer.

"Different?" I questioned, repeating what she said.

"We can talk in the morning, Absol, give some sleep to the non-darklings," huffed ninetales, burrowing her nose deeper into her paws.

I didn't want to wait, but I could foresee that arguing about it now would end with me leaving, and I didn't want to go back on the trail. So I waited, I even napped, too, just before the morning, trying to stay silent so the ninetales could get her sleep.

When the sun shined from outside, with the first rays ninetales stretched and now, with a much clearer look in her eyes, she looked at me. Though the look of her icy eye seemed to penetrate me completely, making me feel that she was looking at the wall behind me instead of me.

"You had a question," she reminded me softly.

"I asked what's 'different'?" I answered right away.

"You know what's 'different', but you still ask me to be sure about it," laughed the fire beauty. "Corrupted, changed, and cursed pokemon, like the beartic you killed. Though I am not sure if they deserve to be still called pokemon, and their 'death' be called death. They died accepting Giratina's gift."

I heard the name Giratina before, Aria, my human, knew all the pokemon and those with Aspect always were getting some attention of interested in general knowledge about creatures living in this world. Aspect pokemon more often were called god pokemon, but I also could remember there was some 'god' pokemon so the role of god was taken. Aria used to call them 'Aspect' as each of them was only one of its kind and had some role. They were also called legendaries, but it was putting Aspects together with a few more pokemon that were less special than these few, but still very special. However it was all just Aria's knowledge, I knew as much as I heard sporadically giving to it any attention. Giratina was Aspect of antimatter.

"So, this Giratina, is it a real thing?" I tried to encourage her to tell me more, every bit of knowledge about the curse was precious these times.

"Weird you still have some doubts in her, after seeing so much of her distortion," replied ninetales, and her mouth formed a slight smile.

"I try to imagine what accepting her 'gift' looks like, I don't see something of this power walking around with boxes giving away her distortion," I said, embellishing. The fire type still had a slight smile, but didn't laugh.

"Everything happens here," she patted her forehead with one of her many tails. "Looking for the easiest way to reach your ambitions, goals, strength makes everyone fall for it. Why wait if you can have everything now? Why try if you can fail? Reach for the corruption, use its help, get whatever you want. That's how Giratina's gift is given, under the layer of promises. Greed is all it needs, how much you can sacrifice to achieve the 'dream'. Yet, it appears there is something more in it, you made it look... broken."

"Me?" I repeated, questioningly raising a brow of the eye not covered by fluff.

"You killed the beartic whose fear of losing its territory drew it to corruption. Seems like the changes didn't make him strong enough, you gave proof that it doesn't always work," said the excited ninetales, and her icy eye seemed to penetrate my soul with its gaze.

"Oh, it's not that, he just wasn't..." I bit my tongue before I said too much knowledge about anomalies. Of what I and Aria discovered a few days before the city was ruined.

 _Maybe if we would know how to use this knowledge, I would still have my place on the couch._

"Of course he was, he was corrupted to the bone months before you met him," the ninetales finished for me. "I never before seen or heard about someone able to defeat 'different' alone, these things can slay entire packs."

My horn itched at the tip when she said it.

 _She lied, she saw._

But the itch was a bit different from usual, as if she had seen, but didn't know about it. How would it be possible, maybe she wasn't sure if she saw or not or maybe she couldn't remember it. I hardly believed it, meeting anomalies was hard to forget.

 _What if she has lived too long to remember?_

"Is killing the corrupted something you use to do?" she suddenly asked.

"No, but it wasn't the first one I killed," I said trying not to lie, she lied to me so I raised my attention, but I didn't want her to raise hers. I didn't know what tricks ninetales could have, they live thousands of years, so they have to have some.

"You have to be a great fighter than, good that I saved you in time, you almost froze to death."

"I am fine with the cold," I answered as my pride kicked in.

"Maybe. But you are not an ice type, your protection is your coat that, while wet with blood, makes you lose your heat even faster than you would without it," she marked. "Also, you still have to clean yourself, unless you want to pretend to be shiny now."

I folded my forehead on this remark and looked at myself. I couldn't agree I looked like a shiny, the beartic blood had already solidified, turning into a dirty deep red, almost brown colour. Without a word, I started to clean myself using the nearest snow and looked for some stone to take care of my horn, tail, and claws.

Ninetales observed me curiously, unwillingly annoying me greatly, but I acted as if I didn't notice. Trying to clean my fur, I melted some snow, discovering the bright shining rock underneath. I pushed my scythe against it, realising sparkles that hissed, landing in the snow. The stone was hard, and the harder the stone was, the easier my job was to get all my sharpness into good shape. My scythe required the largest amount of time, to bend it in the right curve, to shape it at every possible angle, for any possible cut I would want to do. It was this time when I didn't think about the fight marks on my blade as something nice. The single incision Zar left me with was just annoying. It was obstructive in every sharpening, making it harder to smoothly push the blade against some surface. The last fight left me with a broken horn, though someone who wasn't an absol wouldn't see a difference. Nothing in that fight had gone right, it was just an insane brawl. The curse pushed this beartic to the edge, making him throw himself on me without a second thought about his wounds. As the nameless ninetales said it, Giratina's gift was a parasite. Not some kind of bug in one's body but still, if hungry, it was going crazy but also weaker. To survive, it had to eat, and if there was no food, the corrupted become some.

"What!?" I barked, as I didn't manage to pretend I didn't notice her looking at me any longer. I was almost done with cleaning, even if my fur still was a shade of crimson.

"It's just the way you clean," breathed the ninetales.

"Put your criticisms deep into your fluffy ass," I answered annoyed, but the fire type smirked, seemed to be completely ignoring my tone.

"They way one groom its fur and takes care of itself is usually an achievement of its parents, you are rather used to a brush, towel and comb," said the pokemon before me.

I looked at her carefully, scowled, and rapidly released air through my nose.

"I am not interested in relations with other survivors," I said, guessing she had to have lived in the city too, yet I didn't remember myself of any domestic ninetales, but I also didn't know everyone. Still, ninetales were rare to amongst humans. Having it as a pet wasn't problematic, but not many want to have a pet that will outlive them, their kid, kids of their kids and the civilisation they live in. Taking a vulpix for humans was like giving a pet for ten or more future generations. Such ninetales with age also grew too intelligent to be in the role of a pet. Generally, they could be problematic when they were getting these two or three times older than their owner.

"Survivor?" she repeated. "No, I left humanity..." she made a pause thinking about right words. "... a long time before it collapsed. I mean, long time for you. For me too. I just want to mark that was a normal 'long time', not the overly long-long time one may think of, considering species things.

"Whatever," I responded grumpily, even if her explanation amused me. If she left humans before the city fell, she had to run away from her trainer or be left by one. Whatever it was, I wasn't in the mood to go into this right now.

I turned toward the exit, looking at the landscape burrowed in snow and ice, the sky was grey with clouds. Whole scenery in grey, black and white, I saw no different colour in my eyesight.

 _It fit my appearance._

I thought.

The sun wasn't visible thought thick layer of clouds even if it was still early. It took me a moment to understand where I was, the ninetales had to drag me longer while as I could see the beartic's mountain, but now from the opposite side.

Should I just leave, or should I say something to this ninetales? She annoyed me a little and somehow I felt that I don't like her, yet there was some warmth and food shared. Also, a warning that I am going to meet more of the cursed 'waiting for me in the shadow', there are no shadows too dark for dark type. Also, not that would change anything, no turning backs.

"Thanks," I shot back at ninetales behind. She nodded.

"Good luck there, lost absol. Till next time," she answered, and so I walked away.

It wasn't the best form of thanking for some hospitality, but we were strangers meeting at the edge of the world. I didn't feel obligated to do anything more. It was very unexpected to meet anyone here, especially a rare fire type far in the north, at the end of the winter, in the place that leads to nowhere, considering she came from the south. Just after fighting beartic about which she seemed to know a thing or two. She guessed I was domestic once, or already knew it and just pretended she was guessing using my cleaning as an opportunity to check my reaction. I also was guessing she was once domestic, saying 'I left humanity long before collapse' doesn't say it she was domestic or not. This meeting left an uncomfortable aftertaste in my mouth, that in exchange of information, she learnt more than I.

I also had an idea it was another creation of the curse, but from these intelligent, much more dangerous ones. Not everyone wishes to become strong and powerful, some wanted to be beautiful, smart, or cunning, whatever, none of them were less dangerous than those who wished for strength. The curse was always working in its twisted way to grant what one wanted and to take, trusting ninetales words, what Giratina needed. What could it be? Life essence? Soul? Another form of spiritual energy? Were any of these even real?

What would Aspect pokemon want in exchange for her gift? Was her life fading away so that she had to look for a way to steal doubt-exciting life energy from regularly mortal creatures?

Was she hungry for the power to rule? I could imagine the pokemon of Aspect had to be too busy to deal with the Aspect she had and did not need even more duties. Did she just need some minions to roam around? As humans used to say 'another pair of hands to get dirty' so she could stay clean. After all, pokemon like that couldn't do everything alone, she needed some unquestioning supporters that would be free to roam and deal with less necessary stuff, so the world wouldn't boom with information after information about Giratina showing here and there.

In this case, why there was only one curse? Giratina's curse? There were many Aspects, many legendaries that had to do their businesses. Each of them could spread its own corruption to lead mortals to its own goals, yet we had only Giratina's curse.

 _What if not every legendary legend was real?_

The thought struck me out of nowhere.

 _What if none of them were real?_

Another one came to me.

 _The dream, an illusion. Scary shadows of the night, that disappear in the morning's shine of truth. The darkness always has an opportunity for confusion and misleading._

After all, the ninetales didn't have to know the truth. I may not sense a lie if the speaker truly believes in what she speaks. The ninetales truly could believe that behind all of the curse, there is Giratina, but I didn't know her. I couldn't just believe her in whatever she was saying, I had to keep some distance in all of this. Like, she could say some of the real truth, but at the same time some of it could be the truth she believed was true.

One was sure, the curse was much too visible this year, It doesn't even feel like I left the Edge of the World, I barely entered Northern Oblast and shit happens. But there is no turning back on this journey, no more running and hiding. I am a leaf on the wind, I float with the wind, and if I fall, I fall, but as long as I float, I float. I am a leaf on the wind, sharp and dangerous leaf that gonna butcher its way forward if forced to. I will never again be forced to hide on the edge of the world.

However life didn't have anything for me now, I wasn't struck by a dozen challenges and didn't need to fight for survival. Keeping pace, I reached the edge of icy desolation going between the rarely growing needle-leaved trees. The ground was still covered by snow, but it was just twenty or thirty centimetres deep, it felt warmer too.

I decided to walk for the rest of the night, having a meal in the morning, I didn't need to start hunting after just arriving these grounds. I could enter deeper into the forest and do it tomorrow night, somewhere where lived more potential prey.

I wasn't thinking about it earlier, but how did the ninetales hunt something on this land of nothing but snow? Like, there could be some prey to hunt, after all, beartic had to live somehow all these years, but for someone who wasn't living here, it wasn't so obvious where to find something to eat. I also doubt she was caring it with her, everyone would salivate by holding food in their mouth for so long.

Maybe she could be more of an interesting pokemon than just fancy outlook. I usually returned from my hiding in the later part of the year, so maybe she was usually here and so she knew where to hunt. All I could do was just to keep guessing.

Instead, I decided to leave it and focus on looking for tracks of aurorus. For killing beartic there shouldn't be any problems getting information about whatever interesting happened from here to the edge of the eeveelution pack and sometimes inside of their society. I didn't exactly know how they collect all this information, but I could guess enough to be quite close to the truth. They were a herbivorous group that could provide some protection in this dangerous land for different passing herbivore pokemon. Being guest, such pokemon always had to say something he or she hear or saw on the way. The group of aurorus walked long distanced from east to west and in opposite directions, so others could travel with them for long distances safe from predators, or most of the predators. Said beartic and other big predators still could be dangerous, but chances of survival still were higher than travelling alone. Herbivore pokemon were kind of blind to the marks predators made, they couldn't smell them or see the tracks. They never hunted, so they never knew what they should be aware of while being hunted. However no matter what, in the role of predators, still the most dangerous were pokemon that were rare, as it's hard to look for something no one had ever seen before. Like me for example. Or even more, every corrupted pokemon as it's almost impossible to know what kind *gift* it got. Maybe it could use different than original type, attacks. Maybe it had new hidden limbs or already was so far away from what it originally was that it could be anything. Simplifying, I felt dangerous, but they were always stronger.

 _Even though I was surprised I dealt with that beartic quite well._ I smirked to myself despite all awareness how much luck and improvisation it costed me. It would be quite a short journey if I died from the claw from first met pokemon... changeling.

It could be not the last one. I really should find these aurorus packs to learn if it was just my bad luck and tendency to draw trouble like a magnet, or this spring is a spring of anomalies and there are a lot of them wandering in Northern Oblast, or whole north, or maybe everywhere and while I was out there sleeping over the winter the world managed to end under my dreaming nose, leaving hungry and slowly fading away leftovers. Great disaster would spare me for a second time.

My eye caught a sigh of some broken twigs on the snow-covered bush. After inspecting it closer I could see that it wasn't done by mistake. Broken were only the thinnest and softer twigs that could become food, thicker and more wood-like parts of the bush were undamaged. Carefully digging in the snow I revealed the part of the bare ground finding there, steps of mostly round shape, but with long blunt claws. The pokemon needed to be quite heavy to leave a mark despite the layer of snow and the fact of frozen ground. Highly probably it was aurorus judging from the claws which they used to rake in hard frozen ground to find tasty goods underground, even in the middle of the coldest winter. The smell was weak, these pokemon weren't sweating to leave a path of smell and so the snow kept washing everything away. The mark could be made yesterday, but also could be made last year. A clue that was no clue.

Maybe not the most helpful, but always some track, at least I knew I was already on their living grounds. Because of the enormous size of mature aurorus finding them was just a matter of time, but I also didn't want to waste too much wandering through the forest.

I returned to walking south, looking for some more promising tracks. Besides aurorus's, I was also looking for different smaller pokemon I could probably eat. Eating every day wasn't a must, however, was more pleasant than walking on an empty stomach.

Luck wasn't on my side, apparently, as I didn't find anything before nightfall. I wasn't about to sleep just yet, waiting with it till morning, but it was easier to catch something while it wasn't hidden deep in some tight hole. I hate digging, even if I was better at it than most of the quadruped pokemon of similar size thanks to my claws, yet I was getting furious whenever I had to do it.

The night came fast, but it wasn't dark. The moon shined brightly and the sky was full of stars barely covered by the clouds. The snow was reflecting the stars and moonlight and so was gleaming my white fur that still had some shades of red here and there. In such a night even someone without great night vision could walk without stumbling and only the places under thicker, but still bare tree's crown or deeper ravines could be mysterious.

Besides such great conditions, something shined in the forest and I couldn't see what was it. The shine was weak, but still somehow oblong in shape. To check it, I moved through the bushes making some rustling noise getting closer.

Between trees, I found the weird formation of long and, seemed to be, sharp objects. Only while standing just next to it I realised these are bones I look at. The skeleton was placed upside down and I was looking at it from the tail side. I judged it from the missing skull at the tip of the 'tail' that could be also taken as 'neck'. Ribs that caught my attention in the first place were four or five times my height pointing in the sky but one was missing. Moving to another side of the founding I found its skull on the very long 'neck'. The lower jaw was broken and few teeth were missing. Moving to another side and taking a look at another angle I decided it moved on all four. Inspecting the 'leg' I also found out one of them was broken, but signs of teeth and claws. In the bush nearby I also found missing rib under the snow by stepping on it. Pushing the snow off it I saw how beastly it was broken at its end.

"It had to be a fight, predators able to hunt something so large as aurorus," I hummed to myself thinking it had to happen this winter as I didn't remember any aurorus's bones lying in the area. They were hiding their dead, they had a tradition to bury them at the bottom of the river so no one will smell rotting flesh. Was this one an exception? Was he or she kicked out of the group? There was only twelve of them last time I saw them and they were family, it rather hard to be kicked out of such group one grew up with and know since egg.

I pushed the snow from the second side of the rib finding out that part was missing and what was left were sights of powerful teeth and tearing.

 _What an abominably strong predator, was this rib pulled of still living aurorus?!_

The idea was rather stupid, but I hadn't any others. Breaking bones had a sense if one wanted to eat them, but here I found them all in one piece. This rib had to be broken during the fight and threw away. I returned to the rest of the corpse and tried to judge its size to guess its age, however it was hard without all flesh and skin. It was mature and couldn't be amaura, that much I could tell.

I started to push the snow away, finding more tracks proving it was a fight. There were a dozen steps everywhere and it was hard to tell anything detailed from them besides those predators were in a group and it wasn't a single species. Many sizes, many claw shapes, I also had to remember only heaviest left their steps under the layer of snow. I followed the trail pushing against another wall of dry frozen bushes.

I stood in place and breathed deeply.

Before me was a forest of bones, ribs jutting into the night sky, reflecting moonlit skulls and broken environment. I was looking at the place were all twelve were slain together. I found them, pity that I won't be able to ask them anything in the moment when my question list doubled.

 _What slays the biggest?_


End file.
